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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chapuji--. Copyright No. 

ShelfJS 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 



Cro3ter anb the 1Re\>8 

A COMPANION VOLUME TO 

THE BISHOPS' BLUE BOOK 



BY THE 



/ 

REV. J. SANDERS REED 

AUTHOR OF "THE BISHOPS' BLUE BOOK," ETC. 



"Ordo episcoporum ad originem recensus, in Joannem 
Btabit auctorem."— Tertullian 



NEW YORK 

JAMES POTT & COMPANY 
114 Fifth Avenue 

1895 






BV67 
, TR43 



Copyright, 1895, by 
JAMES POTT & COMPANY 



The Library 
of Congress 



WASHINGTON 



TROW DIRECTORY 

PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY 

NEW YORK 



LC Control Number 




tmp96 027858 



TO THE CHRISTIAN, 

THE SCHOLAR, THE AUTHOR, THE DIVINE, 

THE PRELATE, 

MY REVERED FATHER IN GOD, 

THE BISHOP OF CENTRAL NEW YORK, 

CETTE MORGUE LITTERAIBE, 

OF ECCLESIARCHS, 

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION, 

IN HIS NAME. 



TO THE READER 

Some generous critics of " The Bishops' 
Blue Book " considered that it should be 
followed up by a companion volume. 
Much of the material for another bead- 
roll was on hand ; and so " The Crozier and 
the Keys " has been fabricated. 

Neither volume pretends to be exhaust- 
ive. I trust, however, that historical ac- 
curacy has been attained, wherever it 
should be expected. 

I have nowhere attempted a biography ; 
nor do I appear as an essayist. If I have 
indicated historical by-paths, or uncovered 
any ecclesiastical treasure-trove, I am con- 
tent : I am only a chronicler, an epitom- 
izer, if you choose, a custos rotulorum. 

No formal argument has been endeav- 
ored ; and yet, if I mistake not, the record 
transcribed establishes : 

That episcopacy is immanent in the 
Church ; 



vi To the Reader 

That the historic episcopate is indepen- 
dent of territorial jurisdiction ; 

That prelacy and popery are not con- 
vertible terms ; 

That episcopalianism and sacerdotalism 
are not equivalents ; 

That not all are bishops who are called 
bishops ; 

That ordination is not another name for 
consecration, that the diocese is not an 
expanded parish, and that the prelate is 
not a development of the presbyter. 

To satisfy an expressed desire, refer- 
ences and authorities have been appended 
to certain chapters. A complete bibliog- 
raphy would have been impedient and su- 
perfluous. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 
©art jflrat 

CHAPTER I. page 

Parochial Bishops, 1 

CHAPTER II. 
Associated Bishops, 9 

CHAPTER III. 
Tulchan Bishops, 15 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Scottish Nonjurors, .... 29 

CHAPTER V. 
The College Bishops, . . . . . 53 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Usagers, 69 

CHAPTER VII. 
Uncanonical Bishops, 79 



viii Table of Contents 

CHAPTER VIII. p AQE 

Parker versus Pole, 87 

CHAPTER IX. 
Missing Bishops, 95 

CHAPTER X. 
The English Nonjurors, . . . .107 

CHAPTER XI. 
The Irish Nonjurors, 123 

CHAPTER XII. 
Roman Titulars in England, . . .127 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Roman Titulars in Scotland, . , .145 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Roman Titulars in Ireland, . . . 157 

part Second 

CHAPTER XV. 
Married Bishops, .169 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Lay Bishops, 181 



Table of Contents ix 

CHAPTER XVII. page 

Presbyteral Bishops, . . . . : 193 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

SCHISMATICAL BISHOPS, 207 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Ordinations? 249 

CHAPTER XX. 
Episcopal Visitations, 289 

CHAPTER XXI. 
The Old-Time Bishop, 311 

CHAPTER XXII. 
Martyrs, ........ 341 



part jflrst 



PAROCHIAL BISHOPS 



Nennius, a writer of the ixth century, asserts that S. 
Patrick founded three hundred and sixty-five churches 
and consecrated three hundred and sixty-five bishops — a 
bishop to a church. The "Annals of the Kingdom of 
Ireland," by the Four Masters (a mosaic of extreme an- 
tiquity, parts of it dating back to the vth century), attrib- 
ute to the apostle of Ireland seven hundred bishops and 
seven hundred churches — a bishop to a church. 

Bernard of Clairvaux, in his "Life of Malachy," bishop 
of Connor, elected primate of Armagh (1134), with whom 
he was on the most intimate terms, and from whom he had 
heard of the ecclesiastical affairs of Ireland, avers (chap- 
ter vn. ) that almost every church had a bishop of its own. 

"Bishops were very numerous in Ireland, and were in 
mauy instances ministers of single churGhes." — Primate 
Colton's Visitation (xivth century). 



CHAPTEE I 

PAEOCHIAL BISHOPS 

At the opening of the vmth century the 
county of Antrim had, in one section of it, 
a bishop of Connor, a bishop of Kilroot, and, 
but twelve miles away, a bishop of Rashee. 
In one district of the county of Down we 
find a bishop of Downpatrick, a bishop of 
Bright (three miles southeast from Down- 
patrick), and a bishop of Eaholp. In the 
same part of the county were also stationed 
a bishop at Maghera (nine miles southwest 
from Downpatrick), a bishop at Nendrum, 
and a bishop at Magh-Bile. Twenty-one 
bishops could have been visited within the 
bounds of the present diocese of Meath, 1 
viz.: the bishops of Clonard, Duleek, Kells, 

1 Dr. W. D. Killen : Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, 
vol. ii., 107; vol. i, 181 n. Also Reeves: Ecclesiastical 
Antiquities, pp. 128, 136, 142, 144, 148, 151, 154, 239, 246, 
250. Cogan : Diocese of Meath, i. , 5-7. 



4 Parochial Bishops 

Trim, Ardbraccan, Dunshaughlin, Slane, 
Fore, Killare, Fennor, Dulane, Indenen, 
Magh-Breagh, and Stackaller, etc. There 
was also a bishop at Athcliath (Dublin), a 
bishop at Clondalkin, five miles distant, 
and one at Glendalough, in the same neigh- 
borhood. 1 

According to the census of Sir William 
Petty, the population of Ireland, in the 
xnth century, was less than four hundred 
thousand ; and yet traces are to be found 
of at least three hundred bishops, or nearly 
a bishop to every thousand people. 2 

The synod of Eath-Bresail (1112) placed 
Ireland under twenty-three diocesan bish- 
ops and two archbishops. Had they all 
territorial jurisdiction ? 

In the district formed by this synod into 
the diocese of Down, there had existed the 
bishoprics of Downpatrick, Bright, Baholp, 
Bangor, Maghera, Nendrum, Magh-Bile, 
etc. 

Fourteen ancient bishoprics — Dublin, 

1 So Dr. Lanigan in hi3 Ecclesiastical History of Ire- 
land, vol. iii. , p. 228. 

2 Bishop Mant : History of the Church of Ireland, i., 3. 
Killen : Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, i., 167. 



Parochial Bishops 5 

Swords, Lusk, Finglass, Newcastle, Tawney, 
Leixlip, Bray, Wicklow, Ballymore, Clon- 
dalkin, Tallaglit, and O'Murthy — were 
merged into the diocese of Dublin by de- 
cree of this synod. 1 

The see of Dromore contained three 
bishoprics : Dromore, Donaghmore, and 
Magheralin. 2 

The rural deaneries of Drogheda, Ardee, 
and Dundalk, which were added (1242) to 
the diocese of Armagh (Albert of Cologne, 
primate), had been bishoprics. And the 
bishop of Louth, of whom we find traces in 
the xith century, must also have been a 
parochial bishop. 3 

Tuam was an archbishopric some time in 
the xmth century ; and yet, under date of 
1216, there is the record of the death of the 
bishop of Knockmoy, six miles distant; 
and, in 1241, of the death of the bishop of 
Enaghdum or Annadown, a few miles, in 
another direction, from the same Tuam. 
There were also bishops of Mayo, a small 

i Ledwik, p. 82. 

2 Reeves : Antiquities of Down, Connor, and Dromore, 
pp. 127, 306. 

3 Harris's Ware, i. , 82. Harris's Ware's Bishop of Clog- 
her. 



6 Parochial Bishops 

village in county Mayo, " centuries after 
the rural bishoprics had generally merged 
by the decrees of the synod of Cardinal 
Paparo." x 

In the same century there were at least 
nine bishops in county Roscommon — the 
bishops of Elphin, Ballytober, Assylin, 
Ardcarne, Kilbarry, Clontusket, Ogulla (?), 
Creerve, and Clooncraff. 3 

The diocese of Down, in its present ex- 
tent, is a collection of smaller sees which 
have been reduced to the condition of 
parishes, and of districts which in primitive 
times were not assigned to any diocese. 
The same remark applies to Connor and 
most of the larger dioceses of Ireland. 3 

Iniscathy, an island of one hundred acres, 
at the mouth of the Shannon, had a bishop. 4 

There was also a bishop at Eathlin, a 
small island on the north coast of the coun- 
ty of Antrim. In 1861 the census put the 
population at four hundred and fifty-three 

1 D'Alton : History of Ireland, ii, 144. 

2 Dr. Killen : Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, i., 177. 

3 Reeves : Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connor, 
and Dromore. Appendix, 123. 

4 Annals of the Four Masters, 19. 



Parochial Bishops 7 

individuals. 1 At a provincial council, held 
1324, it was decreed that " the small and 
poor bishoprics not exceeding £20, £40, 
£60 a year, and which were governed by 
mere Irish, should be united to the more 
eminent archbishoprics and bishoprics." 

Jeremy Collier and Dr. William Bright 
quote Gervase (Adas Pontif. Cantuar) to 
the effect that Archbishop Theodore con- 
secrated a bishop and put him at S. Mar- 
tin's, a suburb of Canterbury, and that the 
line was continued until extinguished by 
Lanfranc, in the xith century. 

Wilkins (" Concilia," i., 547) mentions 
rural bishops as in attendance at the synod 
at Kells, in Meath (1152), and that then it 
was ruled (Cardinal Paparo, papal legate, 
presiding) that, " on the death of village 
bishops and of bishops who possessed small 
sees in Ireland, there should be chosen to 
succeed in their stead arch-presbyters; 
and that their sees should be erected into 
so many heads of rural deaneries." 

But these may have been chorepiscopi. 

1 Reeves : Ecclesiastical Antiquities, 249. 



II 

ASSOCIATED BISHOPS 



" Diocesan episcopacy had not *then (vith century) been 
introduced into Ireland. ... In other respects, too, 
customs prevailed with regard to the order unknown else- 
where. One of these was the association of bishops in 
groups of seven who lived together. Six such groups are 
mentioned in the Martyrology of Donegal, some of them 
said to be brothers." — Olden y s Church of Ireland (1892). 

u The bishop (Chad) said to him, ' Make haste to the 
church and cause the seven brothers to come hither.' " — 
Bedels Ecclesiastical History, IV. 3. 



CHAPTER II 

ASSOCIATED BISHOPS 

In the British Museum the reader will 
find this record, in the original manuscript 
of Donall Albanach OTroighthigh, writ- 
ten (1477) at Baile-in-Mointin : "Patrick 
erected seven churches in Cianachta." 

In Tirechan's Annotations (the oldest ex- 
tant history of S. Patrick, written within 
a century of his death), we read that 
" Patrick passed Shannon three times and 
completed seven years in the west quarter, 
and came from the plain of Tochuir to 
Dulo Ocheni and founded seven churches 
there." And again : " The seven sons of 
Doath — Cluain, Findglais, Imsruth, Col- 
cais, Deruthmar, Oulcais, and Cennlocho — 
faithfully made offerings to God and S. 
Patrick." 

In an old Irish life of S. Briget, who 
died 525, it is recorded that, on one oc- 



12 Associated Bishops 

casion, at Tealagh, in the west of Leinster, 
seven bishops were her guests — "pious 
nobles." 

iEngus the Culdee (of the ixth century), 
in his Litany, gives a list of one hundred 
and forty-one places in Ireland where the 
institution of seven bishops existed; and 
he invokes, among others : 

" The seven bishops, of ' Tulach na'n 
Epscop, 9 or Tulach of the bishops ; " 

" The seven bishops of Drom Arbelaig ; " 
" The seven bishops in Tamhnach ; " 
" The seven bishops of Cluain-Hemain ! " 
And of the latter we have further in- 
formation in the " Life of S. Forannan " (pri- 
mate of Armagh, 832), where we are told 
that, after the council of Drumceatt, Co- 
lumba was met by a large concourse of ec- 
clesiastics, among whom the descendants 
of Cennaine, the aunt of S. Brigit, are alone 
enumerated, and among these "the seven 
bishops of Cluain-Hemain, now Clonown ; 
and they are represented, in the Genealogy 
of the Saints in the " Book of Lecan," as sev- 
en brothers, the sons of the same brother." * 

1 Skene's Celtic Church, 25, 26. Todd's Life of S. Patrick 
34. 



Associated Bishops 13 

In the Irish Calendar, at July 15th, we 
find mention of "seven bishops, sons of 
Finn, alias Fincrettan, of Drumairbea- 
lagh;" and, over against July 21st, this 
notice : " The seven bishops of Tamhnach 
Buadha; and we find seven bishops, the 
sons of one father, and their names and 
history among the race of Fiacha Singhdhe, 
son of Feidhlimimidh Eeachtmhar, son of 
Tuathal Teacntmhar." 

The learned editor of " Primate Colton's 
Visitation "(which was made in the xrvth 
century), notes four other groups of seven : 
" The Seven of Hy-Tuirtre " ; " The Seven 
of Maghdola"; "The Seven of Glenda- 
loch " ; and " The Seven of Imsclothrann." 



Summing up the evidence 1 on the sub- 
ject, it would appear that anciently, as a 
consequence, perhaps, of S. Patrick's or- 

1 Dr. Reeves : Adamnan's Vita Columbse (one of the 
most valuable contributions to the early ecclesiastical his- 
tory of Scotland, which has been made during this present 
century) passim. Reeves : Ecclesiastical Antiquities of 
Down, Connor, and Dromore. Reeves : Primate Colton's 
Visitation. Skene : Celtic Scotland ; and the authorities 
specified in the text. 



14 Associated Bishops 

dering, there were individual churches in 
Ireland that could boast of seven bishops, 
usually seven brothers selected from one 
family in the tribe ; that the institution 
was based on the tribal system, which suf- 
fered no interference from another clan ; 
and that sometimes every family had its 
own bishop. 1 

Bernard of Clairvaux, in his "Life of 
Malachy," primate of Armagh (1134), does 
not hesitate to say that " the holy see (Ar- 
magh) was held by hereditary succession. 
Nor did they permit any to obtain the 
episcopate save those who were of their 
own tribe or family. Though, as it some- 
times happened, clergymen of the family 
failed, bishops of it never failed. In fine, 
eight married men, without ordination, 
though men of learning, preceded Celsus." 

1 Healy : Ancient Irish Church, p. 46. 



Ill 

TULOHAN BISHOPS 

1571-1610 



*' There are three sorts of bishops : my Lord Bishop , 
my Lord's Bishop, and the Lords Bishop. My Lord 
Bishop was in the time of Popery ; my Lord's Bishop is 
now, when my Lord getteth the fat of the benefice, and 
the Bishop serveth for a portion out of the benefice, to 
make my Lord's right sure ; and the Lord's Bishoj) is the 
true minister of the Gospel." — Extract from sermon 
preached (February, 1571-72), at the inauguration of the 
first Tulchan bishop, by a disappointed candidate. 

" The moderator (David Dickson) craved liberty to ex- 
pone what was meant by Tulchan bishops. It was a Scots 
word used in their common language. "When a cow will 
not let down her milk, they stuff a calf's skin full of straw, 
and set it down before the cow, and that was called a Tul- 
chan. So these bishops possessing the title and the bene- 
fice, without the office, they wist not what name to give 
them, and so they called them Tulchan bishops." — Peter- 
kin's Records of the Kirk {Edinburgh Assembly, 1639), p. 
248. 



CHAPTEE III 
TULCHAN BISHOPS 1 

The fate of the Italian hierarchy in 
Scotland was sealed by the Parliament 
which met at Edinburgh on August 1, 
1560. 

On August 17th, the " Confession of 
Fayth professed and believed by the Prot- 
estants within the realme of Scotland," 
was read, and confirmed by the three Es- 
tates. 

On August 24th the jurisdiction of the 
pope in Scotland was abolished, it being 
ordered that " na Bishop nor uther Prelat 
use any jurisdiction in tyraes to cum by the 
said Bischop of Bome's authoritie under 
the pane aforesaid." 

The first General Assembly of this new 

1 For a complete list of these " bishops," without the 
succession and without consecration, see Bishop Keith's 
Catalogue of the Scottish Bishops, 



18 Tulchan Bishops 

religious association was held at Edin- 
burgh, on December 20, 1560, and con- 
sisted of forty-six individuals, dominated 
by John Knox, by whom the kingdom was 
divided into five districts, to each of which 
a " Superintendent " was assigned, viz. : 
John Spottiswoode, lay - parson, to the 
counties south of the Frith of Forth to 
the English Border (Lothian) ; John Win- 
ram, to the county of Fife ; John "Willox, 
to the counties included in the archiepisco- 
pal diocese of Glasgow ; John Carswell, to 
the bishoprics of Argyll and The Isles; 
and John Erskine, Baron or " Laird " Dun 
(a layman), to the counties of Forfar and 
Kincardine, then known as Angus and 
Mearns. 

In 1571 it was clear that "the Super- 
intendent System, which was neither Epis- 
copal nor Presbyterian, with its ministers, 
exhorters, and readers, had proved a fail- 
ure," and that " the very constitution of 
the kingdom had been rendered imper- 
fect by the questionable authority of the 
acts of the various parliaments " of the 
preceding ten years. The new govern- 
ment (the earl of Mar, regent) thereupon 



Tulchan Bishops 19 

determined to establish an episcopacy, 
which, if not historical, would, at least, 
furnish successors to the defunct prelates 
in the national legislative assembly, and 
continue the Third Estate. The earl of 
Morton, who succeeded to the regency on 
the 24th day of November, 1572, was also 
concerned, with others of the nobility, in 
the institution of this nominal order of 
bishops, as enabling them to enjoy the 
lion's share of the revenues of the several 
sees to which their hench-men might be 
appointed : the titular would have the of- 
fice he coveted ; the patron, the ecclesiasti- 
cal plunder. 

On the 18th day of August, 1571, Mor- 
ton nominated to the primatial see one John 
Douglas, rector of the University of St. 
Andrew's and provost of St. Mary's College 
there, an " auld unable man," as Knox's 
gossiping secretary describes him, " ane 
man unable to travell in body as a man 
should do, and more unable of his tongue 
to teach the principal office of ane bish- 
op ; " and as " archbishop " he sat in the 
convention of Stirling (September 5, 
1571), his name appearing as Joannes 



20 Txdchan Bishops 

Archepisc Sancti-Andree ; and on the 10th 
day of February following he was "in- 
augurated" — John Knox preaching the 
sermon, "Winram, superintendent of Fife, 
an Augustine monk, delivering the exhor- 
tation on the duties of a bishop, and the 
apostolical commission transmitted by the 
" bishop " of Caithness (a layman, never in 
holy orders), David Lindsay, minister at 
Leith (whose ordination is doubtful), and 
John Spottiswoode, superintendent of Lo- 
thian, the lay-parson of Calder, one of the 
compilers of the Confession ; all of whom 
(after he had declared that he would be 
" obedient to the Kirk," and that he would 
"take no more power than the Counsall 
and Generall Assemblie of the Kirk should 
prescribe ") laid their hands on him (the 
first instance of laying on of hands in or- 
dination in the " Eeformed Church "of 
Scotland), " and embraced the said rector, 
Mr. John Douglas, in token of admission 
to the bishoprik " ! Two years later (1573), 
accused by the General Assembly of re- 
missness, indolence, contumacy, neglect 
of the exercises of preaching, visiting, etc., 
on making an effort to clear his charac- 



Tulchan Bishops 21 

ter, he sank down and expired on the 
spot. 

James Paton, minister of Muckhart, on 
the banks of the Devon, appointed the same 
year (1571) to the see of Dunkeld, on the 
deprivation of the canonical prelate, Robert 
Crichton, for adherence to the queen, was 
" consecrated " by the " archbishop " of St. 
Andrews, and the superintendents (all lay- 
men) of Fife, Lothian, and Angus. He, 
too, came to feel the heavv hand of the 
Kirk, for, in 1573, it was alleged against 
him, in the General Assembly, that he " had 
received the name of a bishop, but they 
had not heard that he had used the office 
within his bounds," that he had not pro- 
ceeded against Papists, etc. ; and the next 
year he was again arraigned for not excom- 
municating his powerful neighbor, the earl 
of Atholl, a zealous Eomanist, and ordered 
to confess his fault publicly in the cathedral 
church of Dunkeld. 

John Porterfield, the third of the first 
batch of Tulchans, was nominated (1571) 
to the archbishopric of Glasgow ; but at the 
expiration of a year he was succeeded by 
James Boyd, the proprietor of the estate of 



22 Tulchan Bishops 

Trochrig, who Avas " consecrated " by the 
" bishop " of Dunkeld (James Paton), the 
" bishop" of The Isles (John Carswell, 
parson of Kilmartin and superintendent of 
Argyll), the bishop of Orkney (Adam Both- 
well, one of the two Italian prelates in 
Scotland who affiliated with the Reformers), 
and the superintendent of Lothian, the lay- 
parson of Calder. 

In 1573, George Douglas, an illegitimate 
son of the earl of Argus, was nominated to 
the see of Moray, "consecrated" on the 
5th of February following, and arraigned 
before the next General Assembly, on the 
charge of fornication, and ordered to " purge 
himself before the assembly of the said 
crime." 

At this General Assembly, held at Edin- 
burgh the 6th of March, 1573-74, five of 
these pseudo-bishops put in an appearance 
— John, "bishop" of St. Andrews; James, 
" bishop " of Glasgow ; James, " bishop " of 
Dunkeld; George, "bishop" of Moray; 
and Eobert, " bishop " of Caithness ; and, 
to add to their humiliation, it was decreed 
that the " jurisdiction of bishops in their 
ecclesiastical function shall not exceed that 



Tulchan Bishops 23 

of superintendents, which they previously 
had and still have," and that the said 
" bishops " shall be " subject to the dis- 
cipline of the General Assembly as mem- 
bers thereof." 

In 1574, Andrew Graham, a cadet of the 
Montrose family, but never so much as " a 
preacher," being nominated to the see of 
Dunblane, was ordered, by the General 
Assembly, to " exercise" on the opening 
verses of Romans v., on a specified day, in 
the Magdalene chapel, before the "bishops, 
superintendents, and ministers that may be 
present " ; and, having acquitted himself to 
the especial satisfaction of " the minister 
of Edinburgh," was "consecrated" in the 
summer of 1575, but was " dilated " by the 
next General Assembly held at Edinburgh 
on the 24th of April, 1576, for not having 
" taught since his entry to his office, nor 
yet makes residence, nor hath a particular 
flock." In 1604 he resigned. 

In the year 1576, Patrick Adamson, son 
of a baker at Perth, a " preacher " in the 
Reformed Church, then a pleader at the 
bar, and, subsequently, minister at Paisley, 
was presented to the archbishopric of St. 



24 Tulchan Bishops 

Andrews by the regent, Morton, and, after 
the usual farce of " consecration " by un- 
consecrated " bishops" and superintend- 
ents, entered on the discharge of duties that 
presently (1578) brought upon him the 
wrath of the General Assembly, which en- 
joined him to "remove the corruptions of 
the state of a bishop in his own person," 
and enacted that the " bishops " be content 
to be pastors and ministers of the flock ; 
that they vote not in Parliament in name 
of the Kirk without permission of the Kirk : 
that they rule not above the particular 
elderships but be subject to the same ; that 
they usurp not the power of the Presby- 
teries, etc., etc." Then he was "excom- 
municated" by the synod of Fife (1586), 
at the instigation of Andrew Melville, who 
dwelt upon " the corruptions of the human 
and satanical bishopric ; " but the General 
Assembly, held in the Tolbooth of Edin- 
burgh, in May of the same year, recalled 
the sentence, the " primate " having sol- 
emnly declared, in writing, that he never 
intended in any way to claim a superiority 
over other ministers or pastors, and that he 
would submit his life and doctrine to the 



Tulchan Bishops 25 

General Assembly " without any reclama- 
tion, provocation, or appellation therefrom 
in all time coming." And on the 19th of 
February, 1591-92, harassed by poverty, 
persecution, and physical infirmity, he gave 
up the ghost, having previously issued his 
" Recantation," in which he condemned 
" the establishment of bishops as having no 
warrant from the word of God, but ground- 
ed upon the policy and invention of man, 
whereupon the Primacy of the Pope or 
Antichrist has risen." 

In the year 1557, David Cunningham, 
sub-dean of Glasgow, having been nomi- 
nated to that see by the regent, was " con- 
secrated " at Aberdeen by Adamson, as- 
sisted by John Craig, a colleague to Knox, 
and another minister, an account of which 
proceeding, by a contemporary, has been 
preserved in these words : " On Monday 
the 11th day of November, in the year of 
God 1577, Master David Cunynghame, son 
to the Laird of Cunynghameid, was con- 
secrat bishop of Aberdeen in the kirk 
by Master Patrick Constance (Adamson) 
bishop of Saint Andrews, who made the 
sermon. Master John Craig, minister of 



26 Tulchan Bishops 

Aberdeen, and Master Andrew Strachan, 
minister, collaters, and that in presence of 
the whole congregation of Aberdeen, with 
others of the county present for the time." 

In the year 1603, when James VI. , of 
Scotland, acceded to the crown of Eng- 
land, Alexander Campbell, appointed 
(1566) to the see of Brechin, by the influ- 
ence of the earl of Argyll, but never con- 
secrated, was the only One of all the for- 
mer titular bishops alive, and at the time 
of his death (1606) he was a " preacher " 
at Brechin. 

That same year Archbishop Beaton — 
the last prelate of the Roman Church in 
Scotland — having died in Paris, and the 
archiepiscopal see of Glasgow being liter- 
ally vacant, John Spottiswoode, eldest son 
of Superintendent Spottiswoode, was ap- 
pointed to the archbishopric, and held it 
for seven years unconsecrated ; at the end 
of which time he repaired (1610) to Lon- 
don, with his two diocesan colleagues, 
where they were admitted into the episco- 
pal succession, by the bishops of Lon- 
don, Ely, Rochester, and Worcester ; from 
which time is dated the collapse of Tul- 



Tulchan Bishops 27 

chan episcopacy, as, on the return of these 
three duly consecrated Scottish prelates 
(Spottiswoode, Hamilton, and Lamb), the 
titular incumbents of the sees of St. An- 
drews and Orkney were formally invested, 
on "the penult of December," with the 
episcopal function, and " upon the Lord's 
Day, the 13th of January (1611), and upon 
the Lord's Day, 24th February, the rest of 
the bishops were consecrated, some at St. 
Andrews and some at Leith." That no 
time was lost in the establishment once 
more of the " historic episcopate " in the 
kingdom of Scotland is evident from a let- 
ter from Archbishop Gladstanes (the re- 
cently consecrated primate) to King James, 
under date May 3, 1611, in which he says : 
" All the bishops of my Province are now 
consecrated, for after that I had performed 
that work so in Leith and Edinburgh that 
the very precisians, who had carried preju- 
dice about that purpose, were fully satis- 
fied, being informed that those in the 
North who be within my diocese are more 
unruly than any in the South, spoke ca- 
lumniously, both in public and private, of 
that consecration, I thought meet there 



28 Tulchan Bishops 

also to practise that action, and thereupon 
have consecrated the bishops of Aberdeen, 
and Caithness in the cathedral kirk of 
Brechin, being assisted with the bishops 
of Dunkeld and Brechin." 

Authorities for this Chapter : 

Bishop Keith : Historical Catalogue of the Scottish 
Bishops. 

Lawson : History of the Scottish Episcopal Church 
from the Reformation to the Revolution. 

Grub : Ecclesiastical History of Scotland. 

Stewart : Church of Scotland. 

Calderwood : True History of the Church of Scotland 
from the Beginning of the Reformation unto the End of 
the Reign of James VI. Also his Altar of Damascus. 

Wodrow's MS. Collections. 

Balfour's Historical Works. 

Original Letters of the Reign of James the Sixth. 



IV 

THE SCOTTISH NONJUEOES 

1688-1788 



The bishops of the Scottish Church, learning of the 
presence in England of the Prince of Orange, commissioned 
two of their number — Dr. Rose, of Edinburgh, and Dr. 
Bruce, of Orkney — to go to London, with a renewal of 
their allegiance to James, to whom they had transmitted 
a loyal address a few days previously. Owing to the ill- 
ness of Dr. Bruce, Bishop Rose was compelled to venture 
on the errand alone. While in the metropolis, he was pre- 
sented to William III., who, when the prelate was an- 
nounced, stepped forward and said: "My lord, are you 
going for Scotland ? " " Yes, Sir," replied the bishop, " if 
you have any commands for me." "I hope," said the 
king, " you will be kind to me and follow the example of 
England." " Sir," replied his lordship, " I will serve you 
so far as law, reason, or conscience shall allow me." Will- 
iam said no more, but, turning to his friends, terminated 
the interview. That day the fate of the Scottish Church 
as the national establishment was sealed : the prince de- 
cided to stand by the Presbyterians who had thrown them- 
selves into his arms. 



CHAPTEB IV 
THE SCOTTISH NONJUEOES 1 

On the 19th of July, 1689, the Parliament 
of Scotland passed an act " abolishing pre- 
lacie, and all superioritie of any office in the 
Church in this kingdom above presbyters." 

On the 19th of September, warrant was 
given for the seizure of all the episcopal and 
other revenues by the exchequer, no al- 
lowance being made to the legal possessors. 

On the 24th of April, 1690, an act was 
passed " restoring the Presbyterian minis- 
ters who were thrust from their churches 
since the 1st of January, 1661." 

On the 7th of June, the Westminster Con- 
fession of Faith was ratified, sanctioned, 
and established as the "public and allowed 
Confession of this Church," the same act 
settling " Presbyterian Church Govern- 

1 See the chapters on The English Nonjurors, The Col- 
lege Bishops, The Usagers, and Ordinations ? 



32 The Scottish Nonjurors 

ment and Discipline by Kirk Sessions, 
Presbyteries, Provincial Synods, and Gen- 
eral Assemblies ; " and the royal assent 
was affixed. 

The ejected bishops, turned out of their 
episcopal residences, quietly betook them- 
selves to honorable and patient retirement, 
making no attempt to defend their order. 
According to Grub, their seclusion was so 
complete during the summer of 1689, that 
Dundee, in writing to Lord Melfort, men- 
tioned that he did not know where they 
were, or how to find out the primate, and 
spoke of them as being " now the kirk in- 
visible." 

The most reverend Arthur Eoss, the son 
of a clergyman, parson of Glasgow, bishop 
of Argyll (1675), archbishop of Glasgow 
(1679), primate of St. Andrews by royal 
letters patent (1684), disappeared for four- 
teen years, at the end of which time he died 
at Edinburgh and was interred in the 
churchyard of Kestalrig, near Leith. Forty- 
two years later his grandson, Arthur, sixth 
Lord Balmerino, was beheaded on Tower 
Hill for being concerned in the Enterprise 
of Prince Charles Edivard. 



The Scottish Nonjurors 33 

The Most Eeverend John Paterson, of 
the archiepiscopal see of Glasgow, formerly 
dean of Edinburgh, then bishop of Gallo- 
way, then of Edinburgh, translated to the 
metropolitical chair of Glasgow in 1687, 
retired to the Athens of Scotland, and, in 
the oratory connected with his house in 
that city of Edinburgh, on the Feast of the 
conversion of S. Paul (1705), that the 
Scottish succession might be preserved, 
united with the bishops of Edinburgh and 
Dumblane in elevating John Sage and 
John Fullarton to the episcopal order. 
On the 23d day of December, 1708, he was 
laid to rest in the chapel royal of Holy- 
rood Palace. 

John Hamilton, one of the ministers of 
Edinburgh, being offered the bishopric of 
Dunkeld (made vacant by the ejection of 
Andrew Bruce, " deprived by the court 
for showing his dislike to the design of re- 
pealing the laws against popery "), which 
had been refused by Dr. Drummond, 
bishop of Brechin, because, as he said, he 
knew of no vacancy existing there, greed- 
ily snatched at the same, and the chapter 
having acted on the conge d'elire, rather 
3 



34 The Scottish Nonjurors 

than suffer imprisonment for treason, was 
consecrated on the 19th of October, 1686, 
and, when the hour struck, took the oath of 
allegiance to "William and became sub-dean 
of his majesty's chapel-royal. According 
to Bishop Keith, the father of this prelate 
was a descendant of John Hamilton, the 
last Italian archbishop of St. Andrews, who 
obtained an act of legitimation from the 
Scottish Parliament in favor of his chil- 
dren ! 

George Hallyburton, of the parish of 
Cupar- Angus, consecrated bishop of Brech- 
in in 1678, and provost of that city, trans- 
lated to Aberdeen in 1682, retired to his 
own mansion of Denhead, near the scene 
of his former parochial activity, but did 
not forego the privilege of ordaining clergy 
for the diocese from which he had been 
ejected. He passed away on the 29th of 
September, 1715. 

William Hay, of King's College, Aber- 
deen, incumbent of Kilconquhar in Fife, 
later of Perth, whence (1688) he was ele- 
vated to the see of Moray, fixed his resi- 
dence at Inverness, a place within the lim- 
its of his own diocese, and there died, "sore 



The Scottish Nonjurors 35 

diseased in his body by a palsy," at his 
son-in-law's house at Castlehill, in 1707. 
In the old churchyard at Inverness there 
is said to be a monument to his memory, 
whose Latin inscription has been thus trans- 
lated : " Sacred to the Memory of the 
Eight Eeverend Father in God, William 
Hay, Professor of Theology, a most deserv- 
ing bishop of Moray — a Prelate of primi- 
tive holiness and great eloquence, at all 
times a constant maintainer of the Church 
and regal dignity, as well in their afflicted 
as in their flourishing condition. He 
adorned the episcopal mitre by his piety 
and honored the same by the integrity of 
his life and affable behaviour. Exhausted 
by study and a twenty years' palsy, a most 
blessed end followed his upright life. John 
Cuthbert, his son-in-law, erected this monu- 
ment." 

Andrew Bruce, deprived of Dunkeld 
(1685) by King James, because of his op- 
position to the proposed concessions to the 
Scottish Romanists and appointed (1688), 
by the same monarch, to the vacant see of 
Orkney, died in seclusion in March, 1700. 

James Ramsay, bishop of Ross, " the 



36 TJie Scottish Nonjurors 

bold and consistent advocate of ecclesias- 
tical reform and political moderation, the 
friend alike of Archbishop Burnet and of 
Archbishop Leighton," died at Edinburgh 
in 1696, in great poverty, and was interred 
in the Canongate churchyard. 

James Drummond, of clerical extraction, 
successively incumbent of Auchterarder 
and Muthill, in Perthshire, consecrated to 
the see of Brechin on Christmas - Day, 
1684, in the chapel royal of Holyrood- 
house, and provost of Brechin in 1685, 
" preached in Brechin for the last time on 
Sunday, 18th April, 1689, on the occasion 
of the administration of the holy sacrament 
of the Lord's Supper, his text taken from 
the twelfth chapter, first verse, of St. Paul's 
Epistle to the Bomans, not implying that 
he thought this sermon was the last which 
would be delivered by a bishop in the 
Cathedral Church of Brechin." Subse- 
quently he resided with the earl of Errol, 
at Slains Castle, in Aberdeenshire, until 
death, in 1695, gave him the freedom of 
the universe. 

Andrew "Wood, son of a clergyman of 
the same name, nephew of the famous 



The Scottish Nonjurors 37 

Bishop Guthrie, of Moray, in the reign of 
Charles I., a prelate who was excommuni- 
cated by the Presbyterian General As- 
sembly, held at Glasgow in 1638, for hav- 
ing dared to " preach in a surplice before 
His Majesty in the High Church of Edin- 
burgh, to the great scandal of the zealous 
people there," incumbent of Dunbar in the 
county of Haddington when consecrated 
(1678) bishop of The Isles, and translated 
(1680) to the see of Caithness, removed to 
his cherished parish of Dunbar, where he 
died in 1695. 

Robert Douglas, appointed to the bene- 
fice of Laurencekirk, in Kincardineshire, 
after the murder of Charles I., presented 
by Charles II. to the parish of Bothwell 
in Lanarkshire, thence removed to the 
royal burgh of Renfrew, and thence to the 
parsonage of Hamilton, which included 
the deanery of Glasgow, consecrated to the 
see of Brechin in 1682, translated to Dum- 
blane in 1684, one of the consecrators 
(1705) of John Fullarton and John Sage, 
of John Falconar and Henry Chrystie 
(1709), and of Archibald Campbell (1711), 
died at Dundee in 1716, at the venerable 



38 The Scottish Nonjurors 

age of ninety-two, " full of piety as well as 
of years." 

Alexander Cairncross, a dyer in tlie 
Canongate of Edinburgh, parson of Dum- 
fries, consecrated (1684) to the see of 
Brechin, translated the same year to the 
archbishopric of Glasgow, deprived (1687) 
by the secular power which he had of- 
fended by his unwillingness to suspend a 
clergyman who had preached against the 
corruptions of Borne, " lived privately un- 
til the Bevolution," and four years later 
(1693), having no objections to the oath 
of allegiance to William and Mary, was, 
through the influence of Bishop Burnet, 
appointed to the vacant Irish see of Bap- 
hoe, to the great offence of the Scottish 
bishops and clergy. It is said, however, 
that he was a liberal benefactor to a fund 
raised for the relief of the suffering clergy 
of Scotland, and he bequeathed the tenth 
part of his whole effects to the same ob- 
ject. He died 1701. 

Archibald Graham, parson of Bothsay, 
consecrated (1680) to The Isles, left no 
record behind him, and it is not known 
what became of him. Grub says that there 



The Scottish Nonjurors 39 

is a document dated in April, 1702, bear- 
ing the signature of Archibald, bishop of 
The Isles, among the papers of the Epis- 
copal Church in Scotland, No. E. 4, of the 
catalogue. 

Alexander Eose, student of divinity at 
Glasgow, minister at Perth, professor of di- 
vinity at Glasgow, principal of St. Mary's 
College, St. Andrews, consecrated to Moray 
1686, translated to Edinburgh 1687, one of 
the commissioners to James from the Scot- 
tish bishops 1688, one of the consecrators 
(1705) of John Sage and John Fullarton, 
(1709) of John Falconar and Henry Chrys- 
tie, (1714) of Archibald Campbell, and 
(1718) of Arthur Millar and William Irvine 
(all consecrated to preserve the succes- 
sion, and no portio gregis assigned), on the 
decease of Primate Eoss (1704), vicar- 
general of St. Andrews (as suffragan to its 
archbishop, and heir to the titles and pre- 
rogatives formerly possessed by the bish- 
ops of Dunkeld in virtue of the act of 
Parliament 1617), on the death of Arch- 
bishop Paterson, of Glasgow (1708), sole 
metropolitan, and, on the death of Bishop 
Douglas, of Dumblane (1716), the only 



40 The Scottish Nonjurors 

survivor of the diocesan bishops, and, " so 
far as jurisdiction was concerned, the 
bishop of the whole Church — Episcopus 
Scotorum " — this man, who, in his later 
years, " possessed an ecclesiastical author- 
ity unlike anything which had been known 
in Scotland since the time of the first suc- 
cessors of S. Columba," was spared to the 
Church until the year 1720, when he was 
interred in the ancient church of Eestalrig. 
John Gordon, called by the king in the 
charter of nomination under the great seal, 
dated February 4 and sealed September 
4, 1688, "Doctorem Theologise Joannem 
Gordon, nostrum capellanum apud New 
York, in America," consecrated bishop of 
Galloway on the latter date, followed his 
royal master into Ireland, and, when the 
crown was definitely lost, crossed with him 
into France, and for a while resided at St. 
Germain's, at the dethroned monarch's 
mimic court, where he read the service of 
the English Church, in a private house, for 
the comfort of the exiles. According to 
one account, he died (1726) in the com- 
munion of the Roman Church, and in the 
enjoyment of a pension from the pope. 



The Scottish JVojurors 41 

He was the last of the bishops deprived at 
the Revolution. 



On the death of James II. in France 
(1701), James Edward Stuart (born, just 
before the Revolution, of Mary of Modena, 
the second wife of the misguided king), 
was acknowledged by Louis XIV., and 
lived to acquire the sobriquet of the Old 
Pretender. Twenty years later (1721) 
Charles Edward Stuart, his son, came into 
the world at Rome (his mother being the 
granddaughter of John Sobieski, king of 
Poland) ; and it was not until the decease, 
without issue, of this Young Pretender, in 
1788, that the Scottish prelates saw their 
way clear to the full recognition of the 
actual English sovereign, George III. 

James II. had died, in exile, before the 
deprived bishops ventured on taking steps 
to preserve their order. When the Cheva- 
lier St. George (James Edward Stuart) had 
quite taken his father's place and was 
struggling for the restoration of the Stuart 
dynasty, it became customary, in filling the 
episcopal office, to solicit or act upon his 
recommendation. 



42 The Scottish Nonjurors 

Mr. Lockhart of Carnwath, seems to have 
kept the " King," as he terms him, tolerably 
well informed as to the happenings in the 
Scottish episcopate. On the decease (1720) 
of Bishop Eose, he posted a letter to the 
continent, lamenting the loss of such a 
man at that crisis. On the election of 
Bishop Fullarton as his successor, the 
" King " is exhorted to " write a letter to 
the clergy, recommending unity among 
themselves and obedience to their su- 
periors, particularly to Bishop Fullarton, 
who was appointed Primus of the College 
of Bishops as well as Bishop of Edin- 
burgh ; " and the " King " hearkened and 
heard, and wrote the desired letter, under 
date of June 12, 1720, the bishops acknowl- 
edging the royal supremacy by transmit- 
ting him, in return, a detailed account of 
their whole proceedings. Some time during 
the same year he nominated the Bev. David 
Freebairn to be consecrated ; but as the 
clergyman in question had no great reputa- 
tion for either learning or ability, two years 
went by before the episcopal college con- 
sented to the urgent and repeated requests 
of the Chevalier. On the 18th of March, 



The Scottish Nonjurors 43 

1724, James Edward Stuart, in reply to a 
communication from the College Bishops, 1 
authorized them to add to their number the 
four persons they had proposed to him — 
Mr. John Ouchterlonie, Mr. Robert Norrie, 
Mr. Alexander Duncan, and Mr. James 
Rose. Acting on this permission, Messrs. 
Norrie and Duncan were consecrated that 
same year ; and, in 1726, Bishops Freebairn, 
Cant, and Duncan elevated the other nom- 
inees of the Chevalier to the episcopal 
order, though not without serious protests, 
Bishops Fullarton, Gadderar, and Millar 
even refusing to officiate. On the 27th day 
of October (1724) the Chevalier wrote the 
College Bishops to elect Bishop Irvine suc- 
cessor to Bishop Fullarton, Primus, but the 
primate outlived his colleague. Then (May 
1, 1726), he directed them to elect Bishop 
Cant to officiate temporarily as Primus in 
the event of Bishop Fullarton's death, and, 
failing him, Bishop Duncan. Then (July 
20, 1726), he transmitted an order for the 
consecration of John Gillan (which, how- 
ever, was not acted on until June 22, 1727), 
and, in another document, enjoined the 

1 See chapter on The College Bishops. 



44: The Scottish Nonjurors 

bishops not to add any to their number 
without first consulting him, adding : "It 
is my will and pleasure that no bishop 
amongst you shall be appointed to have the 
care and inspection of any particular dis- 
trict without my previous authority." 

After the concordate of 1731, 1 the Cheva- 
lier, on application, gave the bishops " per- 
mission to keep up the episcopal succession 
and to appoint bishops to such districts, 
not exceeding seven in number, as they 
might select, without consulting him," al- 
though he still retained the right to nomi- 
nate for the see of Edinburgh, which va- 
cancy, however, lasted till the year 1776. 
This, practically, put an end to the prac- 
tice of applying to the exiled family for 
authority to consecrate. 

In the year 1745, the year of the landing 
of the Young Pretender (Charles Edward 
Stuart), there were not more than one hun- 
dred and fifty presbyters in communion 
with the Nonjuring Scottish Bishops. 

In the year 1784, on the death of Bishop 
Falconer, the first incumbent of the see of 
Edinburgh for forty years, only four pre- 

1 See chapters on The College Bishops and The Usagers. 



The Scottish Nonjurors 45 

lates remained to the Scottish Church — 
Bishop Kilgour, the new Primus, Bishop 
Rose, of Dunkeld and Dumblane, Bishop 
Petrie, of Moray and Boss, and Bishop 
Skinner, coadjutor of Aberdeen ; and their 
clergy were scarce forty in number. This 
was the year, and these Nonjuring bishops 
the channel, of the transmission of the epis- 
copate to America. 

In the year 1788, just one hundred years 
after the deprivation of the original Non- 
juring bishops, the Scottish Church sub- 
mitted to the government, and, on the 25th 
of May of the same year, the name of King 
George was introduced into the Service. 

The notice that was agreed upon by the 
bishops and other clergy, and ordered to be 
published in the chapels, ran as follows : 

INTIMATION TO THE CLERGY AND LAITY OF 
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. 

"The Protestant Bishops in Scotland, 
having met at Aberdeen, on the 24th of 
April, 1788, to take into their serious con- 
sideration the state of the Church under 
their inspection, did, upon mature delibera- 



46 The Scottish nonjurors 

tion with their clergy, unanimously agree 
to comply and submit to the present gov- 
ernment of this Kingdom as vested in the 
person of his Majesty King George III. 
They also resolved to testify this com- 
pliance by uniformly praying for him by 
name in their public worship in hopes of 
removing all suspicion of disaffection, and 
of obtaining relief from those penal laws 
under which this Church has so long suf- 
fered. At the same time, they think it their 
duty to declare, that this resolution pro- 
ceeds from principles purely ecclesiastical ; 
and that they are moved to it by the justest 
and most satisfying reasons in discharge of 
that high trust devolved upon them in their 
episcopal character, and to promote, as far 
as they can, the peace and prosperity of that 
portion of the Christian Church committed 
to their charge. 

"For obtaining of this desirable end, 
they therefore appoint their clergy to make 
public notification to their congregations 
upon the 18th day of May next, that upon 
the following Lord's day nominal prayers 
for the King are to be authoritatively intro- 
duced, and afterward to continue in the relig- 



The Scottish Nonjurors 47 

ious assemblies of this Episcopal Church ; 
and they beg leave to recommend, as to 
their clergy, whose obedience they expect, 
so likewise to all good Christian people, 
under their episcopal care, and do earnestly 
intreat and exhort them, in the bowels of 
Jesus Christ, that they will all cordially re- 
ceive this determination of their Spiritual 
Fathers." 

To this document were appended the 
names of — 

Eobert Kilgour, Bishop and Primus. 

John Skinner, Bishop of Aberdeen. 

Andrew Macfarlane, Bishop of Eoss and 
Moray. 

William Abernethy Drummond, Bishop 
of Edinburgh. 

John Strachan, Bishop of Brechin. 



The relations between the Scottish and 
English Nonjuring prelates were generally 
of the most fraternal sort. 

On the 24th of February, 1712, George 
Hickes, consecrated (1693) suffragan of 
Thetford, by the deprived bishops of Nor- 
wich, Ely, and Peterborough, united with 



48 The Scottish Nonjurors 

two of his Scottish fellow-sufferers (John 
Falconer and Archibald Campbell) in ele- 
vating James Gadderar to the episcopate. 

On the 3d of June, 1713, he was assisted 
in the consecration of Jeremiah Collier, 
Nathaniel Spinckes, and Samuel Hawes, 
for his own church, by the two Scottish 
Nonjurors residing in London — Archibald 
Campbell and James Gadderar. 

On the 30th of March, 1725, Bishops 
Fullarton, Millar, Irvine, and Freebairn 
consecrated another bishop — Henry 
Doughty — for their English brethren, and 
consecrated him at Edinburgh. 

On the 5th of March, 1777, Eobert Gor- 
don, the last surviving prelate of that por- 
tion of the English Nonjuring body with 
which the Scottish bishops were in com- 
munion (Archibald Campbell had started 
another and independent line, in 1733, of 
bishops consecrated by a single bishop, 
which endured until 1805, 1 but was not 
otherwise recognized), wrote to " The right 
reverend the Primus, and his colleagues, 
the Bishops of the Church of Scotland," a 
letter in these words : " Considering the 

1 See Chapter on The English Nonjurors. 



The Scottish Nonjurors 49 

precarious and uncertain tenure of man's 
life, and, in particular, mine own infirmities 
in an advanced age, which the Psalmist tells 
us is but labor and sorrow, I cannot help 
being full of solicitude and anxiety to pro- 
vide for the spiritual comfort and security 
of the poor orphans of the anti-revolution 
Church of England, whom I shall leave 
behind me ; it is therefore my earnest de- 
sire and request to your paternities, that 
you would vouchsafe to take the poor min- 
ished remnant under the wings of your 
paternal protection, receiving them into 
full communion as sound members of the 
Catholic Church, by such synodical act as 
to your paternities, in your wisdom, shall 
seem meet ; wherein, right reverend breth- 
ren, you will afford the highest satisfac- 
tion and comfort to your affectionate 
brother, and devoted servant in Christ." 

The answer of the Scottish bishops was 
at once brotherly and paternal. They 
said: "We hereby declare, upon eve^ 
proper occasion, our willingness to take 
under our care and tuition, and to receive 
into full communion with us, in all the 
holy offices of Christian communion and 
4 



50 The Scottish Nonjurors 

fellowship, as members of Christ's mysti- 
cal body, all those who are in fall com- 
munion with you; and we promise that 
they shall be entitled to the same privi- 
leges in the participation of the Holy mys- 
teries, and all other means of grace, dis- 
pensed by the bishops and ministers of 
our Church, equally with those under our 
pastoral care in this our ancient kingdom." 
In 1779 Bishop Gordon was gathered to 
his fathers, and the original Nonjuring 
English Church had ceased to be. 

Occasionally, however, the Scotsmen 
could not brook the interference of their 
Southern brethren. 

Thus, in the year 1744, Bishop George 
Smith, one of the English Nonjurors, hav- 
ing received into communion a deposed 
Scottish clergyman, intimated to the re- 
calcitrant presbyters of Edinburgh, who 
were disposed to animadvert upon the 
canons lately enacted, that he and his col- 
leagues might proceed to the consecration 
of one of their number — which thing if he 
had done, another schism would have been 
initiated. And Bishop Keith, who died 



The Scottish Nonjurors 51 

Primus of the Scottish Church, on the 20th 
of January, 1757, and to whom we are in- 
debted for the standard " Historical Cata- 
logue of Scottish Bishops " (to say nothing 
of his other literary labors), seriously ex- 
postulated with one of the Campbell line 
(consecrated by a single individual) for un- 
necessary interference in the affairs of the 
Church north of the Tweed. 

AUTHORITIES FOR THIS CHAPTER: 

Lathbury : History of the Nonjurors. 
Perceval : On Apostolical Sitccession. 
Grub : Ecclesiastical History of Scotland. 
Lawson: Scottish Episcopal Church since the Revolts 
tion. 
Skinner : Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, 



THE COLLEGE BISHOPS 

1688-1732 



The Revolution of 188S, which established Presbyteri- 
anism in Scotland, surprised the ejected bishops of the 
Scottish Church into the rejection of the diocesan episco- 
pacy that had superseded the tribal in the xnth century — 
previous to which time the bishop of S. Andrews was the 
only diocesan prelate in Scotland, as Grub explains ; and 
to him was given the title of The Bishop of the Scots, just 
as Aidan had been Bishop of the Northumbrians; and 
Felix, Bishop of the East Angles ; and Diuma, the Scot, 
Bishop of the Mercians and Middle Angles ; and Cedd, 
Bishop of the East Saxons ; and Trumwine, Bishop of the 
Picts ; and Tuathal, abbot of Dunkeld, on the union of the 
Scots and Picts under Kenneth (849), was styled primus 
episcopus ; which title was changed on the translation of 
the primacy to S. Andrews, fifty years later, into Episcopi 
Scotorum (Escop Alban, in the Keltic), as applied to the 
bishops of that see, because " they were the bishops of the 
whole nation of the Scots. '* 

Had the answer of the bishop of Edinburgh to King 
William III. been different — more politic or more courte- 
ous — the ancient church of Scotland had not been disestab- 
lished. But its fate was sealed in that interview ; and 
thenceforth, even until the death of this same Bishop 
Rose, in 1720, whose episcopal authority, however, was 
recognized to the end by the clergy of the metropolitan 
province of S. Andrews — whose vicar-general he had been 
as bishop of Edinburgh — all the presbyters elevated to the 
Scottish episcopate u were consecrated solely for the pur- 
pose of preserving the succession," and without smyportio 
gregis being assigned to them. 



CHAPTEE V 

THE COLLEGE BISHOPS 1 

In the year 1688-89 the bishops of the 
Church of Scotland were deprived of their 
temporalities and, as it fell out, of juris- 
diction. The bishop of Edinburgh, whose 
answer to the king precipitated the over- 
throw of the Establishment, and who, on 
the death of the primate, Arthur Ross, as- 
sumed (1705) the title of vicar of the see of 
S. Andrews, and, eventually, as the sole sur- 
vivor of the diocesan bishops, became 
Episcopus Scotorum, raised to the episco- 
pate, as metropolitan and primate, six cler- 
gymen who survived him (two — Campbell 
and Gadderar — residing in England ; four 
— Fullarton, Falconer, Millar, and Irvine — 
living in Scotland) ; but " none of them 

1 See the chapters on The Usagers, &ndOrdi?iations ? ; also 
those on The Scottish Nonjurors, and The English Non- 
jurors. 



56 The College Bishops 

either possessed or laid claim to any juris- 
diction in virtue of his episcopal charac- 
ter." Once more there was not a diocesan 
bishop in Scotland. The situation was 
unique. A College of Bishops governed the 
Church of Scotland I 

According to the Scotichronicon (Dr. Gor- 
don), this extraordinary system lasted from 
1686 to circ. 1740, and included twenty 
bishops from first to last. But one must 
read between the lines of these tables. 

Of the prelates in possession of sees at 
the Eevolution, but five, exclusive of Bishop 
Gordon, who had joined the Boman com- 
munion, survived the death (1704) of Arch- 
bishop Boss, the primate of S. Andrews, — 
the archbishop of Glasgow and the bishops 
of Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Moray and Dum- 
blane ; and one of these, "William Hay, the 
bishop of Moray, was physically incapaci- 
tated. To preserve the episcopate it was 
resolved to proceed to the consecration of 
other clergymen, and on January 25, 1705, 
John Fullarton, who had been one of the 
ministers of Paisley, and John Sage, a 
graduate of S. Salvator's College, S. An- 
drews, parish schoolmaster, tutor, parish 



The College Bishops 57 

priest, polemic, chaplain, were raised to the 
episcopal order by John Glasgoio (Pater- 
son), Alexander Edinburgh (Eose), Robert 
Dumblane (Douglas) ; and it was stipulated 
that during the lifetime of the consecrators 
" they were to have no share in the gen- 
eral government of the Church, but only 
to assist in consecrations and ordinations, 
and to give their counsel and aid when re- 
quired." 

As the deaths of Bishop Hay (1707) and 
Archbishop Paterson (1708) again reduced 
the number of the Scottish prelates to five 
— Hallyburton, formerly of Aberdeen, Eose, 
of Edinburgh, Douglas, formerly of Dum- 
blane, and Fullarton and Sage, and as Hal- 
lyburton had become " so weak in his in- 
tellectuals that it was not judged convenient 
to employ him in any business of impor- 
tance that required a certain degree of se- 
crecy and caution," it was thought expedi- 
ent to raise other two to the episcopate, 
and, accordingly, on April 28, 1709, John 
Falconer, ejected minister of Carnbee in 
Fife, and Henry Christie, ejected incum- 
bent of Kinross, were consecrated at Dun- 
dee, the usual residence of Bishop Douglas, 



58 The College Bishops 

by Alexander Edinburgh, Robert Dum- 
blane and John Sage. 

On June 17, 1711, death relieved Bishop 
Sage of the burdens of the episcopate ; and 
the surviving prelates filled his place by 
consecrating, on S. Bartholomew's day of 
the same year, at Dundee, the son of Lord 
Neil Campbell and grandson of the famous 
covenanting leader, Archibald, marquis of 
Argyll, and on the same conditions that had 
been laid down in the case of the former 
consecrations. At the time, Archibald 
Campbell was a resident of London, and 
there he continued to live, even after his 
consecration, to the great detriment of the 
Church, becoming the author of a new 
schism among the English Nonjurors, for a 
small section of whom he consecrated, un- 
assisted, and without the consent of his col- 
leagues, one Roger Lawrence, the first of a 
line of prelates (1733-95) owing their epis- 
copal character to the action of a single 
bishop. 

At the opening of 1712 the Episcopal 
College consisted of Bishops Rose, Doug- 
las, Falconer, Christie, and Campbell, 
Bishop Rose acting as Primus. On S. 



The College Bishops 59 

Matthias' Day (February 24th) James 
Gadderar, formerly minister at Kilmalcolm, 
in Ayrshire, then resident in England, was 
consecrated at London by Archibald 
Campbell, George Hickes, ejected dean of 
Worcester, an English Nonjuror, conse- 
crated suffragan of Thetford by the de- 
prived Anglican prelates, and John Fal- 
coner. This is said to be the only instance 
of an English Nonjuring bishop joining in 
the consecration of a Scottish prelate, al- 
though the Scottish bishops, on two occa- 
sions at least — in the consecration (1713) of 
Jeremiah Collier, Nathaniel Spinckes, and 
Samuel Hawes ; and again (1725), in the 
consecration of Henry Doughty — did what 
they could to perpetuate the Jacobite line 
in England. Bishop Gadderar continued 
to reside in London till the year 1724. 

The death of Bishop Christie, in 1718, 
left but three prelates in Scotland — Rose, 
Fullarton, and Falconer, and forced the 
survivors to take immediate steps toward 
the preservation of the succession. Ac- 
cordingly, on the 22d of October of the 
same year, Arthur Millar (who had been 
deprived of his parochial cure at Inveresk, 



60 The College Bishops 

in the county of Edinburgh, by the com- 
mittee of estates in 1689, and had, subse- 
quently, been tried for not praying for 
King George), and William Irvine (who 
had been driven out of his parish of Kirk- 
michael, in Ayrshire, at the Revolution, by 
the Cameronian rabble, and had been twice 
incarcerated for his Jacobite proclivities) 
were consecrated, at Edinburgh, by Alex- 
ander Edinburgh, John Fullarton, and John 
Falconer. 

This was the last time that Bishop Eose 
took part in any important ceremony. On 
the 20th of March, 1720, " this primitive 
and upright prelate," the sole survivor of 
his brethren ejected at the Revolution, fell 
asleep ; and the Scottish Church was ab- 
solutely without a prelate consecrated or 
elected to any particular diocese or dis- 
trict. 

A few days later, the four surviving res- 
ident Scottish bishops having exhibited 
their letters of consecration, and demon- 
strated their episcopal character, Bishop 
Fullarton was the choice of a duly convened 
meeting of presbyters (about fifty in num- 
ber) as the successor of Bishop Rose, to 



The College Bishops 61 

reside at Edinburgh, and to act as Primus, 
but without any metropolitan authority. 
The bishops concurred, and assumed the 
name of The Episcopal College. 

Encouraged, as Grub tells us, by what 
had taken place at Edinburgh, a large body 
of the clergy of Angus, and those also in 
the presbytery of S. Andrews, requested 
Bishop Falconer, who resided in Fife, to 
assume the spiritual superintendence of 
them, and the people committed to their 
charge. This arrangement was made with- 
out delay, and Bishop Falconer became a 
" district bishop," the old territorial limits 
of the ecclesiastical divisions being disre- 
garded. 

Shortly after, the clergy and laity of the 
county of Aberdeen, unable to secure the 
episcopal superintendence of Bishop Falcon- 
er, elected (May 10, 1721) Archibald Camp- 
bell, resident in London, as their ordinary ; 
but The College, fearing his liturgical pro- 
clivities, refused to confirm the election. 
"Whereupon Campbell sent his colleague 
Gadderar to Aberdeen, with a commission 
to act as his vicar ; and four years went by 
before he would resign the see in favor of 



62 The College Bishops 

his friend by a formal deed ; and even then 
he reserved his right, in case he should be 
able to come to Aberdeen and claim it. 

On the 17th of October of the next year 
(1722), two presbyters, Andrew Cant, son 
of the principal of the college of Edinburgh, 
a grandson of a covenanting minister, and 
David Freebairn, originally minister at 
Dunning, but not in much repute for learn- 
ing or ability, were consecrated to the 
episcopate by "Bishops Fullarton, Millar, 
and Irvine ; two years later, on the Feast 
of S. James, 1724, the same bishops con- 
ferred the episcopal order on Alexander 
Duncan, formerly minister of Kilpatrick 
Easter, and Robert Norrie, presbyter in 
Dundee ; and, on the 29th day of Novem- 
ber, 1726, John Ouchterlonie, a bitter po- 
litical partisan, and once minister of Aber- 
lemno, and James Rose, a brother of the 
late bishop of Edinburgh, formerly minis- 
ter of Monimail, received the apostolical 
commission from the hands of Bishops 
Freebairn, Duncan, and Cant. None of 
these were consecrated to any see ; all were 
without any spiritual authority. Bishops 
Fullarton and Gadderar were the only dio- 



The College Bishops G3 

cesan bishops in Scotland. Fullarton had 
been elected by the clergy (1720) to suc- 
ceed Bishop Rose ; Gadderar, who had 
been originally commissioned by Campbell 
to act as his vicar at Aberdeen, had been 
elected (June 17, 1725) as their ordinary by 
the clergy of Moray, assembled in the col- 
lege at Elgin. One year previously (4 July, 
1724) Bishop Gadderar had signed five ar- 
ticles of agreement, as between him and 
his College colleagues, the fourth of which 
declared that " The Primus and the other 
bishops do grant their authority and com- 
mission to the said Bishop Gadderar to 
officiate as bishop of Aberdeen for the 
future — with this express condition, that he 
do not ascribe his officiating there to any 
delegation or substitution for any other 
person whatsoever, but only to the election 
of the presbyters, and authority of the 
bishops of this Church." 

Early in May, 1727, the venerable Primus 
was gathered to his fathers, and Bishop 
Gadderar was left the only diocesan pre- 
late in Scotland — "all the others," as Law- 
son observes, " having no more spiritual 
authority by toleration than they had in 



64 The College Bishops 

England, or in any other country where 
the Church existed or was established." 
"Well might Bishop Eussell (writing 1821) 
exclaim : " We believe no clergyman out of 
Scotland ever supposed that a number of 
men admitted to the order of Bishops, but 
to whom as individuals the government of 
no part of the church was committed, had, 
as a body or college, a right to claim the 
government of the whole." 

On the death of Bishop Eullarton, the 
clergy of Edinburgh, on the 5th of May, 
elected Bishop Millar as their diocesan, 
who was thereupon acknowledged as 
Primus, and vicar-general and metropolitan, 
though not without much controversy and 
schismatical procedure. 

On the 4th of June, of the same year 
(1727), the Bev. Dr. Thomas Battray, of 
Craighall, proprietor of the fine estate of 
Craighall in Perthshire, one of the most 
learned men of the day, having been elect- 
ed as their ordinary by the presbyters 
resident within the ancient diocese of Dun- 
keld, was consecrated at Edinburgh by 
Bishops Millar, Gadderar, and Cant, the 
first Scottish bishop consecrated to any 



The College Bishops 65 

particular district subsequent to the Revo- 
lution. 

Two weeks later (June 18th), William 
Dunbar, formerly minister of Cruden, in 
Aberdeenshire, of which cure he had been 
deprived in 1716, although appointed to it 
after the Revolution, having been elected 
by the clergy of the diocese of Moray 
(Gadderar's election not having been con- 
firmed) to be their bishop; and Robert 
Keith, presbyter in Edinburgh, designed 
to be co-adjutor to the aged Primus, were 
consecrated at Edinburgh by Bishops 
Millar, Gadderar, and Rattray. 

On the 22d of June, John Gillan and 
David Ranken, presbyters in Edinburgh, 
were elevated to the episcopal order with- 
out election to any see, by Bishops Free- 
bairn, Duncan, Rose, and Ouchterlonie. 

On the 9th day of October, 1727, Bishop 
Millar died at a very advanced age. And 
on the 19th of the same month the clergy 
of Edinburgh elected the Rev. Andrew 
Lumsden, minister at Duddingston before 
the Revolution, and archdeacon under 
Bishop Fullarton, a very aged presbyter, to 
the vacant see, and he was consecrated on 
5 



66 The College Bishops 

the 2d of November following, at Edin- 
burgh, by Bishops Cant, Rattray, and 
Keith. 

On the 10th of July, 1733, Bishop Keith 
was elected by the clergy of Fife to the 
superintendence of that district, but con- 
tinued to reside in Edinburgh, and in ac- 
cordance with the Goncordate of December, 
1731, still retained the administration of 
Orkney, Caithness, and the Isles. 

After this, the Scottish bishops, with a 
very few exceptions, were consecrated to 
regular and definite sees. The exceptions 
were : Henry Edgar, consecrated November 
1, 1759 ; Arthur Petrie, consecrated June 27, 
1777; George Innes, consecrated August 
13, 1778 ; John Skinner, consecrated Sep- 
tember 25, 1782 ; Andrew Macfarlane, con- 
secrated March 7, 1787; John Strachan, 
consecrated September 26, 1787 ; Alex- 
ander Jolly, consecrated June 24, 1796; 
Matthew H. Luscombe, consecrated (to go 
abroad) March 20, 1825 ; and David Moir, 
consecrated October 8, 1837. 

The Concordate, which ended the novel 
scheme of governing the Church by a Col- 
lege of Bishops, was subscribed by all the 



The College Bishops 67 

bishops on the 13th of May, 1732, the 
bishop of Edinburgh alone objecting to the 
article abolishing the office of metropolitan ; 
on which account the office of Primus was 
taken from him and transferred to Bishop 
Freebairn. The sixth article assigns and 
apportions dioceses. 

Authorities for this Chapter. 

History of the Scottish Episcopal Church from the 
Revolution to the Present Time. John Parker Lawson. 
Edinburgh, 1843. Pp. 588. 

Ecclesiastical History of Scotland. George Grub. 
Edinburgh, 1861. Four vols. 

An Apology for the Doctrine of Apostolical Succession. 
Hon. and Rev. A. P. Perceval, B.C.L. London, 1839. 

Scotichronicon. Dr. Gordon, of S. Andrews. Glasgow, 
1867. Three vols., containing Bishop Keith's Catalogue 
of the Scottish Bishops. 

Skinner's Ecclesiastical History ', etc. 



VI 
THE USAGEES 

1720-1732 



In the year 1718 the Scottish bishops, to whom the con- 
troversy that was dividing the English Nonjurors was re- 
ferred for a synodical declaration, refused to decide in fa- 
vor of those who contended for the Communion Office as 
it is in the Book of Common Prayer — the party headed 
by Bishop Spinckes, formerly one of the prebendaries of 
Sarum, and Rector of S. Martin's, in that diocese. At 
the same time, they stood out against those (whom the 
learned Bishop Collier represented) who wished the usages 
restored that had been acknowledged at the commence- 
ment of the Reformation. But the via media is not al- 
ways the via sapie?is. 

On the death of Bishop Rose (1720) the same contro- 
versy raged in, and divided the Scottish Church, the 
bishops taking sides, and actively propagating their re- 
spective views and parties. Three years later, Mr. Lock- 
hart, one of the " Trustees " of the exiled prince, wrote 
him, under date of May 21, 1723 : " Since my last, Gad- 
derar (bishop) having gone to the North, and boldly con- 
temned both the advices and orders of the College and 
your Trustees, by openly advancing his opinions, and 
practising his Usages, and having gained several of both 
clergy and laity over to his way of thinking, is in a fair 
way of creating a terrible schism, which cannot fail in 
having dismal effects." 



CHAPTEE VI 

THE USAGEES 1 

On the death (1720) of Bishop Eose, of 
Edinburgh, the last of the deprived dio- 
cesan prelates, the liturgical practices 
which had led to a schism among the Eng- 
lish Nonjurors on the decease (1715) of 
Bishop Hickes, wrought to the creation 
of two parties among the six surviving 
Scottish prelates. 

Bishops Falconer, Campbell, and Gad- 
derar (two of whom resided in London, 
and were in the frequent company of 
Bishops Collier and Brett, the leaders of 
"the primitive party" in the Nonjuring 
Church in the South) were favorable to 
the " Usages : " 

The mixing of water with the wine ; 

1 To be read in connection with the chapter on College 
Bishops. See also the chapters on The Scottish Nonjurors 
and The English Nonjurors. 



72 The Usagers 

The commemoration of the faithful de- 
parted ; 

The use of an express prayer of Invoca- 
tion in consecrating the Elements ; 

The use of the Oblatory prayer before 
distribution. 

They also favored a return to diocesan 
episcopacy, and were not tied to the rec- 
ommendations of the exiled royal family. 

On the other side were ranged the new 
Primus (Bishop Fullarton), and Bishops 
Millar and Irvine, men entirely subject to 
the will of the Chevalier, who thought to 
control them better as a College of Bishops, 
to which he could add at pleasure, than as 
ordinaries in charge of fixed and definite 
districts. 

On the 17th of October, 1722, the Colle- 
giate Party, to prevent the bishops in favor 
of the usages from acquiring a majority, 
elevated to the episcopate two presbyters, 
Andrew Cant, one of the former ministers 
of Edinburgh, and son of the principal of 
the college of Edinburgh, and David Free- 
bairn, sometime minister at Dunning, but 
not in much repute for scholarship or 
ability ; and, to retain the majority they 



The Usagers 73 

had now gained, the same three prelates 
consecrated, in 1724, other two opponents 
of the obnoxious liturgical practices — Alex- 
ander Duncan, formerly minister at Kil- 
birnie, and Eobert Norrie, once stationed 
at Dundee ; and two years later Bishops 
Freebairn, Duncan, and Cant made bishops 
out of John Ouchterlonie, minister at Aber- 
lemno till 1716, and James Eose, a brother 
of the late primate — all of them the choice 
of the exiled James and his " Trustees." x 

In November, 1725, Bishop Irvine was 
translated to Paradise, where he was 
joined, early in 1727, by Bishops Norrie 
and Fullarton, successively. 

Then (1727) the clergy of Edinburgh 
elected Bishop Millar (who had left the 
College Party) as their diocesan, who, 
thereupon, was acknowledged as Primus, 
vicar-general, and metropolitan, by Bishop 
Gadderar, ordinary of Aberdeen, and 
Bishop Cant, consecrated " bishop at 
large," but opposed to the Erastianism of 
his colleagues. The other bishops, Free- 

1 Grub's Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, vol. iii. , pp. 
387, 395. Lawson's Scottish Episcopal Church since the 
Revolution, p. 233, etc. Lockhart Papers. Skinner's 
Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. 



74 The Usagers 

bairn, Duncan, Rose, and Ouchterlonie, 
however, refused their consent. 

A violent controversy ensued. The 
Usagers held to Bishop Miliar. The Col- 
lege Party appointed Bishop Freebairn to 
supersede him or to superintend his dio- 
cese in the interim. 

On the 4th of June (1727), Dr. Thomas 
Rattray, of Craighall, one of the most dis- 
tinguished scholars of the day, and a noted 
champion of the usages, having been elect- 
ed to the see of Dunkeld by the presby- 
ters connected therewith, was consecrated 
to diocesan superintendence by Bishops 
Millar, Gadderar, and Cant. 

On the 11th of the same month, the Col- 
lege Party added two prelates to their 
ranks — John Gillan, preceptor and chap- 
lain to Mr. Lockhart of Carnworth (one of 
the " Trustees " of the exiled James), and 
the nominee of the Chevalier, and David 
Ranken, who was consecrated without con- 
sulting the " king." 

Seven days later the Usagers (or Dioce- 
san Party) consecrated the Rev. William 
Dunbar, formerly minister of Cruden, in 
Aberdeenshire, to the see of Moray, the 



The Usagers 75 

clergy attached thereto having elected him 
to be their bishop ; and at the same time 
the Eev. Kobert Keith, presbyter in Edin- 
burgh, a man of considerable ability and 
industry, and the author of the "History 
of the Church and State in Scotland dur- 
ing the Period of the Eeformation and the 
Reign of Queen Mary" — (the source of Dr. 
Robertson's historical endeavor), who had 
been nominated as coadjutor to the failing 
primate, was raised to the episcopal order. 

On the 9th of October, Bishop Millar was 
gathered to his fathers, but not before the 
other party had passed a formal act an- 
nulling his election to the see of Edin- 
burgh, and suspending him from his func- 
tions. The election of Rattray and Dunbar 
they further declared to be null and void, 
their consecration to be irregular and un- 
canonical, and themselves to be no bish- 
ops of the Scottish Church, and to have 
no power or jurisdiction as such. 1 

On the 19th of the same month the 
clergy of Edinburgh met to elect a bishop 

1 Grub's Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, vol. iv. , pp. 
3, 5, 6. Skinner's Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii., p. 623, 
etc. 



76 The Usagers 

for the diocese. Among them, and voting 
with them, were two of the College Bishops 
— Ranken and Gillan ! The result of the 
election was the consecration, on the 2d of 
November, at Edinburgh, by Bishops Cant, 
Rattray, and Keith, of Andrew Lumsden, 
an aged presbyter, once archdeacon of 
Edinburgh ; and again the Usagers or Di- 
ocesan Party had occasion to rejoice. 

Bishop Ranken died in 1728 ; and two 
years later, during which time no new 
consecrations took place, Bishop Cant fell 
asleep. 

In the meantime Bishop Lumsden man- 
ifested no partiality for either side, and 
Bishop Keith, representing the Usagers, 
and Bishop Gillan, speaking for the Col- 
lege Painty, were in frequent conference. 

At last, in December, 1731, a concordate 
was drawn up, which terminated the con- 
troversy. It was agreed : 

1. That the Scottish or English Liturgy 
only should be used in the public divine 
service ; and that none of the usages which 
had caused recent differences should be 
introduced into the public worship ; 

2. That no man should thereafter be 



The Usagers 77 

consecrated a bishop of the Scottish 
Church without the consent and approba- 
tion of the majority of the other bishops ; 

3. That a mandate from the Primus or 
the consent of the other bishops should be 
necessary to the election of a bishop by 
the presbyters of a vacant diocese ; 

4. That the Primus, for convocating and 
presiding only, should be chosen by the 
bishops, by a majority of the voices ; 

5. That Bishop Freebairn should be the 
first Primus, to serve as above noted; 

6. That the bishops should be diocesan, 
and distributed as herein designated. 



VII 
UNCANONICAL BISHOPS 

1553-1558 



In the year 1534, on the last of March, the convocation of 
the province of Canterbury prepared and signed an instru- 
ment with this title : " Quod Romanus episcopus non habet 
majorem aliquam jurisdictionem a Deo sibi collatam in hoc 
regno Angliae quam qui vis externus episcopus " — The bish- 
op of Rome hath not any greater jurisdiction conferred 
upon him by God in this realm of England than any other 
foreign bishop. On June 1st, of the same year, the convo- 
cation of the province of York sent the king a sort of an 
address, renouncing the pope's supremacy in very similar 
terms, and expressly declaring ' ' that, by the word of God, 
he has no more jurisdiction in England than any other 
bishop." The learned Henry Wharton had (1690) in his 
own hands u no less than one hundred and seventy-five 
such instruments," repudiating the pope's authority, 
11 containing the subscriptions of all the bishops, chapters, 
monasteries, colleges, hospitals, etc., of thirteen dioceses," 
and was aware of the existence of the subscriptions of the 
other nine dioceses. 

No one pretends that these instruments were ever duly 
withdrawn, repealed, or altered by the same ecclesiastical 
legislature duly convened. And yet, on the accession of 
Queen Mary, u no less than thirteen bishops were deprived 
without pretence of ecclesiastical law as received by the 
Church of England ; and others irregularly intruded into 
their sees " by authority of the bishop of Rome. 



CHAPTEE VIX 
UNCANONICAL BISHOPS 

On the deprivation and imprisonment of 
the lawful primate, Thomas Cranmer, six- 
teen bishops were consecrated more Ro- 
mano, in one of the provinces of the Eng- 
lish Church, and thrust into the sees that 
had been forcibly vacated. Of these six- 
teen consecrations, but four are duly en- 
tered in the register at Lambeth. "Where 
and by whom the others were effected 
does not appear, no record of them occur- 
ing in the muniments of Lambeth, Lon- 
don, or Canterbury. 

The four uncanonical bishops, of whose 
consecration to English sees there is rec- 
ord, were : 

Eeginald Pole, consecrated (March 22, 

1555) to Canterbury, by Nicholas Heath, 

archbishop of York ; Edmund Bonner, 

bishop of London ; Thomas Thirlby, bish- 

6 



82 Uncanonical Bishops 

op of Ely ; Richard Pates, bishop of Wor- 
cester ; John Whyte, bishop of Lincoln ; 
Maurice Griffith, bishop of Rochester ; 
and Thomas Goldwell, bishop of S. Asaph. 

Thomas Watson, consecrated (August 
15, 1557) to the see of Lincoln, by the 
archbishop of York and the bishops of 
Ely and Bangor. 

David Poole, consecrated (August 15, 
1557) to the see of Peterborough, by the 
archbishop of York and the bishops of Ely 
and Bangor. 

John Christopher, consecrated (Novem- 
ber 21, 1557) to the see of Chichester, by 
the bishops of London, Ely, and Rochester. 

The twelve uncanonical bishops of this 
reign, whose consecrations are not noted in 
the official registers of the Church, were : 

John Whyte, consecrated to Lincoln, 
one of the consecrators of Reginald Pole ; 

Richard Pates, consecrated to Worces- 
ter, one of the consecrators of Reginald 
Pole ; 

Maurice Griffith, consecrated to Roches- 
ter, one of the consecrators of Reginald 
Pole ; 

Thomas Goldwell, consecrated to S. As- 



Uncanonical Bishops 83 

aph, one of the consecrators of Eeginald 
Pole; 

Gilbert Brown, consecrated to Bath and 
Wells; 

Henry Morgan, consecrated to S. David's ; 

John Hopton, consecrated to Norwich ; 

John Holyman, consecrated to Bristol ; 

Balph Baines, consecrated to Lichfield ; 

"William Glynne, consecrated to Bangor ; 

James Brooks, consecrated to Gloucester ; 

James Turberville, consecrated to the 
see of Exeter. 

On the accession of Elizabeth, all bish- 
ops uncanonically consecrated in and for 
the Church of England were ejected from 
the sees into which they had been intrud- 
ed; and it does not appear that they at- 
tempted to institute a Roman succession 
in the realm. 

The only bishops of the province of 
Canterbury at this date, who had been 
consecrated consonant to the ecclesiastical 
regulations of the country, were the eight 
who had been raised to the episcopal or- 
der before the enthronement of Mary, viz. : 

Salisbury, suffragan of Thetford ; 



84 Uncanonical Bishops 

Barlow, who had been bishop of Wells, 
one of the consecrators of Matthew Parker. 

Hodgskins, suffragan of Bedford, one of 
the consecrators of Matthew Parker, and the 
only one of the seven consecrators of Reginald 
Pole whose line of succession can be traced ; 

Bonner, bishop of London, protege of 
Cardinal Wolsey, chaplain to Henry VIII., 
ambassador to France, Germany, and 
Rome, prisoner- in the Fleet, and later, 
committed to the Marshalsea and deprived 
of his see (1549) for neglect of the cause 
of the Reformation, restored by Mary, one 
of the consecrators of Reginald Pole — un- 
canonically raised (1555) to the archiepis- 
copal see of Canterbury ; 

Thirlby, bishop of Ely, one of the con- 
secrators of Reginald Pole, and assessor 
with Bonner in the public degradation 
(1556) of Cranmer ; 

Kitchen, bishop of Llandaff, "the ca- 
lamity of his see," who alone of all the sur- 
viving diocesans took the oath of suprem- 
acy to Elizabeth ; 

Coverdale, who had been bishop of Ex- 
eter, one of the consecrators of Matthew 
Parker. 



Uncanonical Bishops 85 

Scory, who had formerly held the see of 
Chichester, one of the consecrators of 
Matthew Parker. 

But three of these eight held and ad- 
ministered sees when the new government 
came in, and two of them (Bonner and 
Thirlby) " were incapacitated, as well be- 
cause they had been instrumental in the 
murder of their metropolitan, as because 
they pertinaciously adhered to the author- 
ity of the bishop of Rome, which had been 
duly and canonically renounced by the 
Church of England, and which they had 
themselves abjured." 

Nicholas Heath, archbishop of York, 
one of the consecrators of Reginald Pole, 
also survived to this reign. Consecrated 
to Rochester (1540) in the time of Henry 
VIII., translated to Worcester in 1543, 
and to the archiepiscopal see of York in 
1555, he was deprived for refusing to re- 
pudiate the jurisdiction of Rome over the 
English Church, and went to live on his 
estate in Surrey. 

Every see but Llandaff was now vacant ; 
but its occupant had been canonically con- 
secrated thereto in the days of Henry VIII. 



VIII 

PAEKEE versus POLE 
1555-J559 



u The case, as regards the English succession, may be 
thus stated. The present protestant archbishops and 
bishops of the State Church possess the titles and temporali- 
ties of the ancient sees, and trace their descent by way of 
episcopal ordinations from Matthew Parker, who was con- 
secrated to the see of Canterbury by order of Queen Eliza- 
beth on the 15th Of December, 1559. The fact that he was 
consecrated to that see in the year stated is beyond dispute. 
That he was ever validly consecrated is denied by Cath- 
olic, and maintained by protestant, authorities." 

"The validity of Parker's consecration depends upon 
two questions : firstly, was he consecrated by a bishop who 
had himself been validly consecrated ? and, secondly, was 
the ritual, used at his consecration, sufficient to confer 
valid episcopal ordination ? " 

" The four ex-prelates who are named as the consecra- 
tors of Parker, cannot be said to have transmitted to him 
any ecclesiastical jurisdiction whatever. Persons can only 
transmit that which they themselves possess." — Annals 
of the Catholic Hierarchy of England and Scotland. W. 
Maziere Brady, Rome, 1877. 



CHAPTER Vni 

, PAEKEE versus POLE 
MATTHEW PARKER 

The record of the consecration of Arch- 
bishop Parker is to be found in the library 
of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, as 
well as in the register at Lambeth. 

In the latter document the preface runs : 

" Rituum et Ceremoniarum ordo in Con- 
secratione Reverendissimi Dni Matthei 
Parker, Archiepi Cantuar in Capella infra 
Manerium suum de Lambehith die Do- 
minico (videlicet) Decimo Septimo die 
Mensis Decembris, Anno Domini Millesimo 
Quingentesimo Quinquagesimo Nono." 

In each of the registers it is noted that 
his consecrators were 

William Chichester, 

John Hereford, 

John Bedford, 

Miles, late Exeter. 



90 Parker versus Pole 

Doubt has been expressed as to the epis- 
copal character of William Barlow. No 
record of the time, place, or manner of his 
consecration can be found. But what of 
the three other consecrators ? 

John Hodgskins was certainly conse- 
crated suffragan of Bedford, December 9, 
1537, and his consecrators were John Lon- 
don (Stokesley), John Bochester (Hilsey), 
and Robert St. Asaph (Parfew). And in 
Lambeth registry it stands that Bobert Par- 
few, or Wharton, was duly consecrated July 
2, 1536, to the see of St. Asaph, by Thomas 
Canterbury, John Bangor (Capon), and Will- 
iam Nomvich (Bugg). 

Of Miles Coverdale and John Scory, it is 
likewise on record that they were conse- 
crated bishops August 30, 1551, by Thomas 
Canterbury, Nicholas London (Bidley), and 
John Bedford (Hodgskins). 

According to the Lambeth register, 
Matthew Parker was not consecrated by 
one bishop with others assisting, but by all 
the four bishops conjointly. There can be 
no question that three of these consecrators, 
at least, were in the succession, and that 
Archbishop Parker's episcopal descent can 



Parker versus Pole 91 

be traced, by the records, through three 
undisputed channels which link him to 
Archbishop Warham and Cardinal Fisher. 

The two documents (Archbishop Park- 
er's register at Lambeth, and a manuscript 
among Parker's papers at Corpus Christi 
College, Cambridge) are also official records 
of the facts that Matthew Parker was con- 
secrated at the chapel at Lambeth, and not 
at Nag's Head ; and that the rite used at 
his consecration was the duly appointed 
ordinal of the Church of England. 

REGINALD POLE 

Among the sixteen bishops uncanoni- 
cally consecrated and intruded into Eng- 
lish sees, during the reign of Queen Mary, 
Eeginald Pole, cardinal, is on record, in 
Pole's register at Lambeth, as having been 
consecrated to Canterbury (March 22, 1555) 
by Nicholas York (Heath), Edmund Lon- 
don (Bonner), Thomas Ely (Thirlby), 
Eichard Worcester (Pates), John Lincoln 
(Whyte), Maurice Rochester (Griffith), and 
Thomas St. Asaph (Goldwell). 



92 Parker versus Pole 

Of the consecration of Richard Pates no 
record can be found. 

Of the consecration of John Whyte no 
record can be found. 

Of the consecration of Maurice Griffith 
no record can be found. 

Of the consecration of Thomas Gold- 
well no record can be found. 

Nicholas Heath is on record as having 
been consecrated by Stephen Winchester 
(Gardiner), Richard Chichester (Sampson), 
and John Hereford (Skypp); but of the 
consecrations of Stephen Gardiner, Rich- 
ard Sampson, and John Skypp no record 
can be found. 

Edmund Bonner is on record as having 
been consecrated by Stephen Winchester, 
Richard Chichester, and John Hereford ; 
but of the consecrations of the conse- 
crators no record can be found. 

Thomas Thirlby is on record as having 
been consecrated by Edmund Ronner, 
Nicholas Heath, and John Hodgskins ; but 
of the consecrations of the consecrators of 
Bonner and Heath no record can be found. 

The episcopal character of John Hodg- 
skins, however, is beyond dispute. Not 



Parker versus Pole 93 

only is there due record of his consecra- 
tion by John London (Stokesley), John 
Rochester (Hilsey), and Robert St. Asaph 
(Parfew), but one of them at least (Eobert 
Parfew) is registered as having been con- 
secrated by Thomas Canterbury, John 
Bangor, and William Norwich. 

The Church of Rome maintains the val- 
idity of the consecration of Reginald Pole. 
But the line of succession of only one of 
his seven consecrators can be duly traced. 
And John Hodgskins, suffragan of Bed- 
ford, was also one of the consecrators, four 
years later, of Matthew Parker ! 



IX 

MISSING BISHOPS 
1535-1784 



OHAPTEE IX 

MISSING BISHOPS 

The names of the consecrators of Edward 
Fox, said to have been bishop of Hereford 
from 1535, are not recorded in the register 
at Lambeth, nor is there note there of his 
consecration. 

The names of the consecrators of Hugh 
Latimer, said to have been bishop of Wor- 
cester from 1535, are not recorded in the 
register at Lambeth, nor is there note there 
of his consecration, although his resignation 
(1539) is mentioned. 

The names of the consecrators of Richard 
Sampson, said to have been made bishop 
of Chichester, 1536, and to have been trans- 
lated to Coventry, 1543, are not recorded in 
the register at Lambeth, nor is there note 
there of his consecration. 

The names of the consecrators of "William 
Rugg, said to have been bishop of Norwich 
7 



98 Missing Bishops 

from 1536, are not recorded in the register 
at Lambeth, nor is there note there of his 
consecration. 

The names of the consecrators of William 
Barlow, said to have been made bishop of 
St. Asaph, 1536, to have been translated to 
St. David's the same year, to Bath and 
Wells, 1549, and to Chichester, 1559, are 
not in the register at Lambeth, nor is there 
note there of his consecration. 

The names of the consecrators of John 
Hilsey, said to have been made bishop of 
Rochester, 1536, are not recorded in the 
register at Lambeth, nor is there note there 
of his consecration. 

The names of the consecrators of John 
Skypp, said to have been made bishop of 
Hereford, 1539, are not recorded in the 
register at Lambeth, nor is there note there 
of his consecration. 

The names of the consecrators of John 
Bell, said to have been made bishop of 
Worcester, 1539, are not recorded in the 
register at Lambeth, nor is there note there 
of his consecration. 

The names of the consecrators of George 
Day, said to have been made bishop of 



Missing Bishops 99 

Chichester, 1543, are not recorded in the 
register at Lambeth, nor is there note there 
of his consecration. 

The names of the consecrators of twelve 
of the sixteen uncanonical bishops of Queen 
Mary's 1 reign, are not recorded in the reg- 
isters of Lambeth, London, or Canterbury, 
nor does it appear where they were made 
bishops. 

The names of the consecrators of Richard 
Pates (Worcester), John Whyte (Lincoln), 
Maurice Griffith (Rochester), and Thomas 
Goldwell (St. Asaph), four of the conse- 
crators of Reginald Pole (1555), cannot be 
found, nor is there record of the conse- 
crations of these four consecrators. 

The names of the consecrators of Stephen 
Gardiner (Winchester), Richard Sampson 
(Chichester), and John Skypp (Hereford) — 
the consecrators of Nicholas Heath (York), 
and Edmund Bonner (London), two of the 
consecrators of Reginald Pole — have not 
been recorded, nor is there note of their 
consecrations. 

The names of the consecrators of William 
Downham, said to have been made bishop 

1 See chapter on Uncanonical Bishops. 



100 Missing Bishops 

of Chester, 1561, are not recorded in the 
register, nor is there note there of his con- 
secration. 

The names of the consecrators of James 
Stanley, said to have been made bishop of 
Sodor, 1573, are not recorded in the reg- 
ister, nor is there note there of his con- 
secration. 

The names of the consecrators of John 
May, said to have been made bishop of 
Carlisle, 1577, are not recorded in the reg- 
ister, nor is there note there of his con- 
secration. 

The names of the consecrators of George 
Lloyd, said to have been made bishop of 
Sodor, 1600, and to have been translated 
to Chester, 1604, are not recorded in the 
register, nor is there note there of his con- 
secration. 

The names of the consecrators of John 
Spottiswoode, Andrew Lamb, and Gavin 
Hamilton (consecrated, respectively, to the 
sees of Glasgow, Brechin, and Galloway, 
and through whom the Sydserf line of 
Scottish bishops (which terminated (1663) 
on the death of Sydserf, bishop of Orkney), 



Missing Bishops 101 

derived the succession) are not found in the 
usual record-book ; but the mandate for the 
consecration, directed to George London, 
Launcelot Ely, Eichard Rochester, and 
Henry Worcester, is in Archbishop Ban- 
croft's register; and Bishop Keith, in his 
" Catalogue of Scottish Bishops," affirms 
that the consecrations took place at London 
House, October 21, 1610, the consecrators 
being George London, Launcelot Ely, and 
James Bath and Wells. 

Unless the registers of St. Andrews are 
still in existence, there would seem to be 
no official record (with but two exceptions 
— that of John Paterson, consecrated by 
Bobert Glasgow and Alexander Edinburgh, 
to Galloway in 1674; and that of Arthur 
Boss, consecrated to Argyll, 1675, by the 
same prelates) of the consecrations or the 
consecrators of the Scottish bishops from 
George Wishart, consecrated bishop of 
Edinburgh, 1662, to John Gordon, conse- 
crated bishop of Galloway, 1688, inclusive. 
The other ecclesiastical records of the 
Church of Scotland are said to have been 
burnt in the fire which destroyed the Houses 
of Parliament, whither the collection had 



102 Missing Bishops 

been taken, for the nonce, from the library 
of Sion College, London, where they had 
been deposited by Bishop Campbell, one 
of the Scottish Nonjurors resident in Eng- 
land. Twenty-eight bishops are thus with- 
out a duly authenticated episcopal pedi- 
gree. 1 

The names of the consecrators of Barn- 
abas Potter, said to have been made bishop 
of Carlisle, 1628, are not recorded in the 
register, nor is there note there of his con- 
secration. 

The names of the consecrators of "William 
Forster, said to have been made bishop of 
Sodor, March 9, 1633, are not recorded in 
the register, nor is there note there of his 
consecration. 

The names of the consecrators of Bichard 
Parr, said to have been made bishop of 
Sodor, June 10, 1635, are not recorded in 

1 John Parker Lawson says, in his " History of the Scot- 
tish Episcopal Church from the Revolution to the Present 
Time" (1843), that "there may probably be some docu- 
ments in the General Register House, Edinburgh ; for the 
proceedings at every consecration must have been reported 
to the Scottish Privy Council, and by them to the Sov- 
ereign in England " (p. 578). 



Missing Bishops 103 

the register, nor is there note there of his 
consecration. 

The names of the consecrators of John 
Owen, said to have been made bishop of 
St. Asaph during the reign of Charles II., 
are not recorded in the register, nor is there 
note there of his consecration. 

The names of the consecrators of Henry 
Feme, said to have been made bishop of 
Chester, 1662, are not recorded in the reg- 
ister, nor is there note there of his con- 
secration. 

The names of the consecrators of Edward 
Eainbow, said to have been made bishop 
of Carlisle, 1664, are not recorded in the 
register, nor is there note there of his con- 
secration. 

The names of the consecrators of Walter 
Blanford, said to have been made bishop 
of Oxford, 1665, are not recorded in the 
register, nor is there note there of his con- 
secration. 

The names of the consecrators of John 
Wilkins, said to have been made bishop of 
Chester, 1668, are not recorded in the 
register, nor is there note there of his con- 
secration. 



104 Missing Bishops 

The names of the consecrators of Henry 
Bridgeman, said to have been made bishop 
of Sodor, 1671, are not recorded in the 
register, nor is there note there of his 
consecration. 

The license for the consecration of John 
Pearson to the see of Chester, is found on 
the Lambeth records, and is dated January 
13, 1672, but the names of his consecrators 
are not entered, nor is there note there of 
his consecration. 

The license for the consecration of John 
Lake to the see of Sodor is on record, but 
not the date of consecration, or names of 
the consecrators, or the fact of his conse- 
cration. He is said to have been conse- 
crated January 6, 1682; to have been 
translated to Bristol 1684; and to Chich- 
ester 1685. 

The names of the consecrators of Thomas 
Smith, said to have been made bishop of 
Carlisle, 1684, are not recorded in the 
register, nor is there note there of his 
consecration. 

The license for the consecration of Bap- 
tist Levins to the see of Sodor is on rec- 
ord, but not the names of his consecrators, 



Missing Bishops 105 

nor is there note there of his consecration, 
1684. 

The names of the consecrators of Nicho- 
las Stafford, said to have been made bishop 
of Chester, 1689, are not recorded on the 
register, nor is there note there of his con- 
secration. 

The names of the consecrators of "William 
Dawes, said to have been made bishop of 
Chester, 1707, are not recorded in the reg- 
ister, nor is there note there of his conse- 
cration. 

The names of the consecrators of Fran- 
cis Gastrell, said to have been made bishop 
of Chester, 1719, are not recorded in the 
register, nor is there note there of his con- 
secration. 

The names of the consecrators of John 
Waugh, said to have been made bishop 
of Carlisle, 1723, are not recorded in the 
register, nor is there note there of his 
consecration. 

The names of the consecrators of Clau- 
dius Crigan, said to have been made bishop 
of Sodor, 1784, are not recorded in the 
register, nor is there record there of his con- 
secration. 



THE ENGLISH NONJURORS 

1688-1805 



William and Mary having been declared to be king and 
queen of England, the new oath of allegiance was taken by 
the two Houses of Parliament in March, 1688-9, the lords 
spiritual dividing. The archbishop of York, the bishops 
of London, Lincoln, Bristol, Winchester, Rochester, Llan- 
daff, and St. Asaph's, and subsequently the bishops of 
Carlisle and St. David's, transferred their fealty to the 
new sovereigns in these words: — U I, A. B., do sincerely 
promise and swear to bear true allegiance to their Majes- 
ties King William and Queen Mary." 

Nine others considered that the oath of allegiance they 
had once taken to King James could not be revoked, and 
refused to nullify it by doing like homage to another. 



CHAPTEK X 
THE ENGLISH NONJURORS 1 

The nine prelates of the Church of Eng- 
land who refused to swear allegiance to 
William and Mary (1688-9), TheDepriva- 
and suffered deprivation there- tlon - 
for, were : 

William Sancroft, archbishop of Canter- 
bury. This is he who attended Charles 
II. on his death-bed (February, 1685), and 
crowned James II. (May 3, 1685), and 
who, refusing to read James's Declaration 
of Indulgence in public, was confined in 
the Tower, tried, and acquitted with six 
other prelates. Deprived (February, 1691), 
he retired to Suffolk, the place of his birth, 
where he died (1693) in Fresingfield. 

William Lloyd, consecrated (1675) to 
Llandaff, translated (1679) to Peterbor- 

1 See the chapters on The Scottish Nonjurors, The Col- 
lege Bishops, and The Usagers. 



110 The English Nonjurors 

ough, and thence (1685) to Norwich. To 
this deprived prelate the deprived San- 
croft, ignoring the consecration of Tillotson 
to the primatial see, to which a majority 
(16 to 6) of the twenty-two bishops of the 
provinces had consented, and at which six 
at least had assisted, delegated, by a for- 
mal instrument dated the 9th of February, 
1691-2, the exercise of his archiepiscopal 
powers ; and acting as his " Vicar, Factor, 
and Proxy-General, or Nuncio," this de- 
prived bishop of Norwich did, with the as- 
sistance of the deprived bishops of Peter- 
borough and Ely, on the 24th of February, 
1693, after Sancroft's death, and in the 
lodging of the bishop of Peterborough, in 
a private house, consecrate George Hickes 
as suffragan of Thetford, and Thomas 
Wagstaffe, suffragan of Ipswich ; on which 
day a schism was inaugurated which lasted 
one hundred and twelve years, even until 
the death (1805) of Boothe, the last of the 
Separatists. 

Thomas "White, bishop of Peterborough. 
Evelyn mentions him as a very eloquent 
preacher, notes his imprisonment in the 
Tower with the other prelates, for "not 



The English Nonjurors 111 

reading the Declaration for liberty of con- 
science," and, under date of June 5, 1698, 
gives this account of his funeral: "Dr. 
White, late bishop of Norwich, who had 
been ejected for not complying with gov- 
ernment, was buried in St. Gregory's 
churchyard or vault at St. Paul's. His 
hearse was accompanied by two other 
Non-juror Bishops, Dr. Turner of Ely, and 
Dr. Lloyd, with forty other Non-juror 
clergymen, who would not stay the office 
of the burial, because the dean of St. 
Paul's had appointed a Conforming Min- 
ister to read the office ; at w r hich all much 
wondered, there being nothing in that 
office which mentioned the present king." 
He was one of the three deprived bishops 
who, not content to suffer in silence after 
the manner of Ken and others, resolved 
on the perpetuation of their succession. 

Francis Turner, bishop of Ely. Master 
of St. John's College, Cambridge (1670), 
dean of Windsor (1683), bishop of Eoch- 
ester (1683), translated to Ely (1684), 
one of the famous seven confined in the 
Tower, suspended and deprived with San- 
croft and Turner, he died in very strait- 



112 The English Nonjurors 

ened circumstances, but not before he had 
taken part in the consecration of the two 
divines nominated by the dethroned king 
to continue the succession of bishops faith- 
ful to the fallen dynasty. His body lies 
in the chancel of the church of Therfield, 
Herts, where he was once rector, the one 
word Expekgiscar ! appearing on the 
stone. 

Thomas Ken, bishop of Bath and Wells, 
a graduate of "Winchester College (1666), 
prebendary of the cathedral (1667), chap- 
lain to Mary at the court of William of 
Orange, at The Hague (1679), presented 
to the bishopric by the king, whose mis- 
tress (Nell Gwynn) he had refused to 
lodge in Winchester on the occasion of 
her visit to the city, one of the seven bish- 
ops to incur the wrath of James because 
of their attitude toward the Declaration of 
Indulgence, — this man, on being deprived 
of his see, retired to Longleat, in Somer- 
setshire, where he closed his life (1711), 
preferring retirement to reinstatement in 
his bishopric on the death (1703) of his 
successor. 

Robert Frampton, bishop of Gloucester. 



The English Nonjurors 113 

This was the man of whom Pepys said 
that he preached most like an apostle that 
he ever heard man; but, being deprived, 
he withdrew from the public ministra- 
tions of the sanctuary, and was content to 
catechize each afternoon, as occasion of- 
fered, the children of the parish church, 
with which he had connected himself, and 
expound the rector's sermon of the morn- 
ing. He died (1708) at the age of eighty- 
six, and was buried privately at Standish, 
in Gloucestershire. 

John Lake, bishop of Chichester. He 
was one of the bishops in the Tower, and, 
dying before the day fixed for the Oath, 
he dictated, with his last breath, the mem- 
orable profession : " Whereas I was bap- 
tized into the religion of the Church of 
England, and sucked it in with my milk, I 
have constantly adhered to it through the 
whole course of my life, and now, if so be 
the will of God, shall die in it : and I had 
resolved, through God's grace assisting 
me, to have died so, though at a stake." 

William Thomas, bishop of Worcester, 
translated (1685) from St. David's. He 
died before the act of deprivation. 
8 



114 The English Nonjurors 

Thomas Cartwright, bishop of Chester, 
who also died the same year. 

The new consecrations, for which Bish- 
ops Lloyd, White, and Turner were re- 
m , n , sponsible, prolonged the line 

The Schism. * • ji -bi v i 

of cleavage .in the English 
Church. 

The schism now assumed minatory pro- 
portions. 

Dr. George Hickes was not the man to 
suffer the new line of succession to termi- 
nate in him. That he felt himself " every 
inch a bishop " is evident from his Letters 
of Orders to Laurence Howell (1712) : 
" Tenore Praesentium, Nos Georgius Hickes, 
permissione divina Episcopus Suffraga- 
neus Thetfordiensis, notum facimus uni- 
versis, quod nos praefectus Episcopus. 

. . ." The deprived bishops took no 
other steps to appoint successors. But 
when "White, Turner, Frampton, Ken, and 
Wagstaffe were dead, this suffragan did, 
with the help of two bishops of Scotland 
(Archibald Campbell and James Gadderar), 
elevate to the episcopate, on the third day 
of June, 1713, Jeremy Collier, the essayist 



The English Nonjurors 115 

and historian, Samuel Hawes, and Nathan- 
iel Spinckes. 

Hickes dead, Collier, who subscribed 
himself Jekemias, Primus-Anglo-Britan- 
nle Episcopus, proceeded, with the assist- 
ance of Hawes, Spinckes, Campbell, and 
Gadderar, to consecrate (June 26, 1716, or, 
according to another authority, January 25, 
1715) to the episcopal office Henry Gandy, 
a bitter partisan and controversialist, and 
Thomas Brett, ordained in the Church of 
England, 1690, and admitted into the so- 
ciety of the Nonjurors but a few months 
previous to his consecration as bishop, 
a man of letters and great ability, the 
choice, presumably, of Suffragan Hickes. 

But schism leads to schism — in the 
Church as in the protamoeba. 

Collier and Brett having introduced and 
adopted a Neio Communion Office, Spinckes, 
Hawes, and Candy, who ad- m n 
hered to the (1661) Book of TheSe ^ atl - 
Common Prayer, resolved on the conse- 
cration of some bishops opposed to the 
Usages, and, accordingly, on the 25th day 
of January, 1720, raised Hilkiah Bedford 
and Kalph Taylor to the episcopate. 



116 The English Nonjurors 

Hawes dying, 1722, and Bedford follow- 
ing him two years later, Taylor proceeded, 
unassisted, to the consecration (1723-4) of 
Bobert Welton, and then he and "Welton, 
the same year, went on and made a bishop 
out of a man named Talbot. 

But if a single bishop can make a bishop, 
it is not in the power of a single bishop to 
secure the recognition of the work of his 
hands by the other bishops of his com- 
munion. And so it was that "Welton and 
Talbot were compelled to seek occupation 
and jurisdiction in the American Colonies. 
The former went to Philadelphia, where 
he exercised the episcopal functions until, 
complaint being entered by the bishop of 
London, the government interfered, and he 
retired to Portugal, where he died 1726. 
Talbot took the oaths and returned to the 
Church of England. 

At last Taylor died also. And then 
Spinckes and Gandy, the survivors, secured 
the episcopal services of John Fullarton, 
Arthur Millar, "William Irvine, and David 
Freebairn (Scottish bishops all) ; and Henry 
Doughty, on the 30th day of March, 1725, 
was consecrated by them for their friends 
in England. 



The English Nonjurors 117 

In the same year, a month or two later, 
John Blackburn and Henry Hall were 
raised to the episcopate by Spinckes, 
Gandy, and the newly consecrated 
Doughty. 

In 1727 Spinckes was translated to Para- 
dise ; and of him it has been written that 
"he had no wealth, few enemies, many 
friends. His exemplary life was concluded 
by a happy death. His patience was 
great ; his self-denial greater ; his charity 
still greater." 

The next year (March 25) the leader of 
this section of the Nonjurors, Eichard Baw- 
linson, was elevated to the episcopate by 
Gandy, Doughty, and Blackburn. And on 
the 26th day of December, of the same 
year, George Smith was consecrated bishop 
by Gandy, Blackburn, and Bawlinson. 

The Prayer-Book party having (1720) 
consecrated two bishops to perpetuate the 
succession in their line, the mT ^ TT 

__. . The Usagers, or 

Other Section of the JNonjU- The Essential- 

rors proceeded to increase the 

number of their bishops, and on the 25th 

day of November, 1722, John Griffin was 



118 The English Nonjurors 

raised to the episcopal office by Collier, 
Brett, and Archibald Campbell — one of the 
Nonjuring bishops of Scotland. 

In the year 1726 Collier died, and the 
surviving prelates of the Usagers, unwilling 
that their section should lack for bishops, 
went on the next year (April 9) to the con- 
secration of Thomas Brett, junior, on whose 
head Brett, senior, Griffin, and the ever- 
ready Scotch Campbell laid their uplifting 
hands. 

By the year 1730 the two sections were 

" ready and desirous " to meet again in one 

communion ; and when Tim- 

Re-union. ., __ - 

othy Mawman was raised 
(July 17, 1731) to the episcopate, his con- 
secrates were Thomas Brett, senior, 
Thomas Brett, junior (both of the Collier 
line), and George Smith (of the Spinckes 
succession). John Blackburn, consecrated 
(May 6, 1725)by Nathaniel Spinckes, alone 
objected to the re-union, probably on the 
ground of the usages, which he could not 
stomach, resolved to live and die a repre- 
sentative of the Church of England, "as 
she stood at the period of the separation." 



The English Nonjurors 119 

The bishop, no doubt, voiced the senti- 
ments of his colleagues, when in reply to 
the question of a friend, he said : " We 
leave the sees open, that the gentlemen who 
now possess them, upon the restoration, 
may, if they please, return to their duty, 
and be continued. "We content ourselves 
with full episcopal power as suffragans." 
The good old bishop, who had become a 
proof-reader, departed this life on the 17th 
of November, 1741, and was buried in 
Islington churchyard, where, according to 
Nichols, this epitaph occurs : 

HIC SITUM EST QUOD MORTALE FUIT 

VIEI VERE REVERENDI 

JOHANNIS BLACKBOURNE, A.M. 

ECOLESI^B ANGLICANS PRESBYTERI, 

PONTTFICORUM ^EQUE AC NOVATORUM MALLEI, 

DOCTI, CLARI, STRENUI, PROMPTI : 

QUI (UTI VERBO DICAM) CETERA ENIM QUIS 

NESCIT ? 

CUM EO NON DIGNUS ERAT, 

USQUE ADEO DEGENER, MUNDUS, 

AD BEATORUM SEDES 

TRANSLATUS EST, 17° DIE NOVEMBRIS 

A.D. MDCCXLI. .ETAT. SU.E LVIII. 



120 The English Nonjurors 

In the year 1741 (June 11), Eobert 
Gordon was raised to the episcopate by 
Thomas Brett, senior, George Smith, and 
Timothy Mawman; and when he died 
(1779) this line became extinct. 

About the time of the termination of the 
disputes respecting the usages, Archibald 

Uncanonical Campbell — that regionary and 
Bishops, irresponsible Scottish bishop 
(who aforetime had joined his uncle, the 
earl of Argyll, in his insurrection against 
James VII., and had subsequently, devoted 
to the interests of the house of Stuart, re- 
fused the oath of allegiance to "William and 
Mary), elected (1721) to the see of Aber- 
deen, after being ten years a bishop with- 
out a diocese and a resident of London to 
the end — acting by his own authority, con- 
secrated (1733) Eoger Lawrence, the au- 
thor of " Lay Baptism Invalid," thus initiat- 
ing another line of Nonjuring bishops, and 
one obnoxious to the regular Nonjurors, 
as requiring the presence of one bishop 
only at a consecration. 

The same year, as it would appear, Camp- 
bell and Lawrence united to raise Thomas 



The English Nonjurors 121 

Deacon, the author of "The Doctrine of 
the Church of Borne," to the episcopate ; 
and, in due course of time, Thomas Dea- 
con made a bishop out of P. J. Brown, a 
brother, as has been supposed, of the earl 
of Annandale. 

In 1780, Thomas Deacon consecrated 
Kenrick Price and William Cartwright, 
who on his death-bed (1799) conformed to 
the Church of England and was communi- 
cated by one of her clergy. 

Before his death, however, Cartwright 
raised (1795) Thomas Garnett to the epis- 
copate ; and shortly after Thomas Garnett 
consecrated Charles Boothe. 

But every schism has its end. And in 
1805, when Charles Boothe died in Ireland, 
the last line of Nonjuring bishops became 
extinct. 

In the year 1840 the crozier which had 
been used by them was in the possession 
of John Crossley, Esq., of Scaitcliffe, near 
Todmorden. 

Authorities for this Chapter : 
Lathbury : History of the Nonjurors. 
Perceval : On Apostolical Succession. 
Lawson : History of the Scottish Episcopal Church since 
the Revolution, 



XI 

THE IEISH NONJURORS 

1688-1716 



CHAPTER XI 
THE IEISH NONJURORS 

As the accession of William and Mary 
scarcely affected the unity of the Irish 
Church, a few words will serve to describe 
the situation. 

Hopkins, bishop of Derry, endeavored 
to dissuade the apprentices of that city 
from closing the gates against the troops 
of James. 

Dopping, bishop of Meath, was desirous 
to accompany the king to the battle of the 
Boyne. 

Dopping, Otway of Ossory, Digby of 
Limerick, and "Wetenbell of Cork and 
Ross, sat in the parliament convened in 
Dublin by the unfortunate monarch, before 
the throne was acknowledged lost. 

Two bishops only refused to take the 
oaths to the new government : 

Sheridan, bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh, 



126 The Irish Nonjurors 

who took refuge in England, where he was 
supported by the contributions of sym- 
pathizing prelates, and where he died 
(1716) in great poverty, the father, how- 
ever, of two bishops ; and 

Otway, bishop of Ossory, who, somehow, 
contrived to hold his see till death (1693) 
deprived him. 

Authority for this Chapter: 
Bishop Mant : History of the Church of Ireland. 



xn 

ROMAN TITULAES IN ENGLAND 

1623-1850 



In the year 1559, fourteen bishops of the Italian Church, 
resident or acting in England, many of whom had been un- 
canonically consecrated in the preceding reign, were de- 
prived for refusing the oath of supremacy to the queen ; 
and after that, for three hundred years save nine, that 
Church had only titulars in the realm. 



CHAPTEE XII 

EOMAN TITULAKS IN ENGLAND 

Thomas Watson, the last bishop of Lin- 
coln to profess obedience to the see of 
Rome, dying in prison in Wisbeach Castle, 
September, 1584; and Thomas Goldwell, 
the last Roman prelate of St. Asaph, dying 
in Italy, April, 1585, — the hierarchy of the 
Italian Church in England became ex- 
tinct. 

In the year 1587, Sixtus V., bishop of 
Rome, created the Rev. William Allen, a 
cardinal-priest, "Prefect of the English 
Mission," assigning to him the title of S. 
Martin in montibas, and placing " the relics 
of Catholicism" under his care. Three 
years later, Gregory XIV. appointed Car- 
dinal Allen librarian of the Vatican, and 
conferred on him the archbishopric of 
9 



130 Roman Titulars in England 

Malines, of which, however, he never took 
possession. In 1594 the cardinal was 
overtaken by death in Rome. 



Archpriests in England. 

In the year 1598, one George Blackwell, 
B.D., scholar of Trinity College, Oxford 
(1562), fellow and master of arts in 1567, 
a pervert in 1574, was appointed "arch- 
priest of England," by command of Clem- 
ent VIII., bishop of Eome ; and for twen- 
ty-three years more (1598-1621) the Italian 
mission in England was without a resident 
episcopal superintendent, its affairs being 
administered by a series of archpriests 
(George Blackwell, 1598-1608; George 
Birkhead, 1608-1614; William Harrison 
1615-1621), constituted each in turn " Head 
of the Secular Priests sent to England from 
the Seminary of Douay and Borne," to 
whom faculty was given to rule, suspend, 
or admonish all secular priests, and from 
whom the bishop of Rome was to receive 
every six months an account of the state of 
the mission. 

Of these three archpriests, Blackwell 



Roman Titulars in England 131 

was deprived of his office by the bishop of 
Rome (1608) because of his advocacy of 
the usual oath to the king ; and William 
Harrison (the last of them) was granted 
" facultates pro archipresbytero Angliae, in 
regnis Angliae, Scotiae, Hiberniae, Monae, 
et aliis locis dominii regis Magnae Britan- 
niae, ac pro personis eorundem regnorum 
et dominiorum tantum," the brief being 
dated 11 July, 1615. 

Intruded Titular Bishops. 

In the year 1623, William Bishop, stu- 
dent at Gloucester Hall, Oxford (1570-3), 
"apostate to Papestrie" (1574), then at 
Douay, Rheims, and Rome, in the English 
College, where he took the mission oath, 
doctor of the Sorbonne, member of the 
controversialist community in Arras Col- 
lege, Paris — was consecrated bishop of 
Chalcedon, in Asia, in partibus infidelium, 
and made "vicar apostolic of England," 
where he died the next year, after the ad- 
ministration of confirmation to the mem- 
bers of his communion in and near Lon- 
don, living there, concealed, in great 



132 Roman Titulars in England 

retirement. This titular bishop was given 
jurisdiction over Scotland as well as Eng- 
land ; but the bishop of Rome was com- 
pelled, by reason of the ancient and invet- 
erate enmity existing between the two 
nations, to order him to abstain from inter- 
ference with ecclesiastical affairs among the 
Scots. 

In the year 1625, Eichard Smith, student 
of Trinity College, Oxford (circ. 1583), then 
of the English College, Rome, where (1587) 
he took the mission oath, then teacher of 
philosophy in the English College at Valla- 
dolid (1595-98), a priest on the English 
mission (1603), later the chief of the con- 
troversialist community of Arras College, 
Paris — was consecrated bishop of Chalce- 
don in partibus infidelium, and sent to Eng- 
land to succeed the late Bishop Bishop, his 
consecrator being Cardinal Spada, the nun- 
cio to France. But it fared not well with 
this titular. For, vexed at the decision of 
his master in Rome (which gave him to 
understand that he had not been created 
Episcopus Anglice, but Episcopus Calce- 
donen. in Asia, with faculties limited and 
revocable ad nutum ipsius Sedis Apostolicce, 



Roman Titulars in England 133 

that the judgment of all disputes was re- 
served to the Holy See alone, and that mis- 
sionaries might exercise their faculties 
without waiting or asking for his approval), 
he resigned his see in hot haste, and " found 
no place for repentance, though he sought 
it carefully with tears." The nuncio and 
the bishop of Eome would not listen to his 
petition to be allowed to withdraw his res- 
ignation ; and the ex-bishop, who had de- 
parted into France (1629), never returned 
to England, but spent the remaining years 
of his life in the convent of the Augustinian 
nuns at Paris, where he died 1655. 

Fifty years and more intervened before 
it was found practicable by the head of the 
Italian Church to intrude another bishop 
into England. At last, in the year 1685, 
the Propaganda elected John Leyburne, a 
doctor of the Sorbonne, president of Douay 
College, to be " vicar apostolic of all Eng- 
land," and in the same year, on the 9th of 
September, he was consecrated at Eome to 
the see of Adrametum in partibus sub archi- 
episcopo Ephesino, and, on arriving in Lon- 
don, was lodged with the king (James II,), 



134 Roman Titulars in England 

and in 1687 made a visitation of the nor- 
thern counties, administering confirmation 
(from January to June) to 20,859 men, 
women, and children. 



In the year 1688 England was divided by 
Ferdinand d'Adda, archbishop of Amasis, 
the nuncio to James II., acting by order of 
the Propaganda and the bishop of Rome, 
into four districts (London, Midland, Nor- 
thern, Western), to each of which a " vicar 
apostolic " was assigned, with titles in par- 
tibus, and with faculties limited ad nostrum 
et Sedis Apostolicce beneplacitum ; and in the 
year 1840 these were subdivided into eight 
districts, with a titular bishop to each, who 
continued to administer the affairs of their 
respective jurisdictions until the restoration 
of the Italian hierarchy in the realm (the 
" letters apostolic " granting and confirming 
which were given at Rome, at St. Peter's, 
"under the Fisherman's ring," the 29th 
day of September, 1850, in the fifth year of 
the pontificate of Pius IX.), when Nicholas 
Patrick Stephen Wiseman, "vicar apos- 
tolic " of the former London district, was 



Roman Titulars in England 135 

translated from the see of Melipotamus in 
partibus infdeliwn to the archbishopric of 
"Westminster and raised to the cardinalate. 



Between the years 1688 and 1840 the 
bishop of Rome intruded thirty-six titular 
bishops into England. The sort and 
manner of the consecration of some of them 
starts the question : Has Eome the suc- 
cession ? 

The Hon. James Talbot (brother to the 
14th Earl of Shrewsbury, and nephew to 
Gilbert, the 13th Earl of Shrewsbury, who 
was a Roman priest), elected by Propaganda 
episcopus Birthani in partibus infidelium, to 
act as co-adjutor to Bishop Challoner, of 
the London district, was consecrated (1759) 
by Dr. Challoner, assisted only by Dr. 
Petre, the bishop of Armoria in partibus 
infdelium. 

Thomas Penswick, who (1831) succeeded 
Bishop Smith of the Northern district, per 
coadjutoriam, was consecrated (1824) to the 
see of Europum in partibus by Bishop 
Poynter, assisted by Bishop Smith and a 



136 Roman Titulars in England 

priest, the Very Bev. John Gillow, presi- 
dent of the college at Ushaw, who acted as 
assistant episcopi loco. 1 

Benjamin Petre, a secular priest of the 
English mission, elected by the Propa- 
ganda to the co-adjutorship of the London 
district cum jure successionis, and to the 
see of Prusa in Bithynia in partibus was 
consecrated (1721) by Bishop Giffard, of 
the see of Madaura in partibus, assisted by 
three priests, the very Reverend and Vener- 
able James Barker, D.D. ; the Bev. Bo- 
dolph Clayton, a missionary ; and the 
Bev. Charles Umphrevill, D.D. ! 

The Bev. Bichard Challoner, the son of 
a rigid Presbyterian, student at Douay 
(1704), professor of rhetoric and philos- 
ophy, and later vice-president of his Alma 
Mater, the author (1737) of " The Catholic 

1 During the thirty years 1 vacancy (1655-1685) Bishop 
Val. Maccioni, from Hannover, offered his services to Pro- 
paganda to travel incognito and consecrate a bishop for the 
head of the Italian mission in England, and suggested that 
two mitred abbots assist at the consecration, citing the prec- 
edent of the consecration of Monsignor Furstenburg's 
predecessor in the see of Paderborn, who was consecrated 
by the suffragan bishop of Osnaburg, assisted by two 
mitred abbots! 



Roman Titulars in England 137 

Christian," elected by the Propaganda to 
the co-adjutorship of the London district 
and to the see of Debra in partibus, was 
consecrated (1741) by Bishop Petre, with 
the assistance of two priests. 

The Eev. Edward Dicconson, educated 
at Douay, where he took the oath in 1699, 
made procurator, 1701, professor of syntax 
and a senior, 1708-09, professor of poetry, 
1709-10, professor of philosophy, 1711- 
12, vice-president and professor of theol- 
ogy, 1713-14, on the English mission from 
1720, nominated by Benedict XIV. to the 
see of Malla in partibus, and successor to 
Bishop "Williams, of the Northern district, 
was consecrated (1741) by Mgr. John 
Baptist Smits, bishop of Ghent, assistenti- 
bus (ex dispensatione Pontificia loco duorum 
episcoporum) eximio D. Prceside et Rev. 
D 770 ' Jacobo Whitenhall, presbyteris. 

John Hornyold, student of Douay, chap- 
lain on the English mission to " the good 
Madam Giffard," author of " Explanations 
of the Apostles' Creed, of the Decalogue, 
and of the Sacraments," whose briefs for 
the co-adjutorship of the Midland district 
cam jure sitccessionis, and for the see of 



138 Roman Titulars in England 

Philomelia in partibus, were issued 1751, 
was consecrated the following year, in Ox- 
fordshire, by Bishop John Talbot Stonor, 
of the see of Thespise in partibus, with the 
assistance of tivo pi*iests. 

"William Gibson, president of the Eng- 
lish college at Douay, translator from the 
French of a work entitled, " The Truth of 
the Catholic Religion, proved from the 
Holy Scriptures," who succeeded to the 
headship of the Northern district per obi- 
tum bonce memorice Matthei fratris sui 
germani, was consecrated to the see of 
Acanthus in partibus (1790) by Bishop 
Walmsley, of the see of Bania in partibus, 
icith the assistance of two priests — the Bev. 
Charles Plowden, and the Bev. John Mil- 
ner. 

The Bev. Bonaventure Giffard, of Douay 
College, distinguished (1677) by the de- 
gree of doctor of divinity from the Sor- 
bonne, chaplain to James II., and, by the 
king's appointment (1688), president of 
Magdalen College, Oxford, the first " vicar 
apostolic" of the Midland district, was 
consecrated (1688) to the see of Madaura 



Roman Titulars, in England, 139 

in partibus by Ferdinand d'Adda, arch- 
bishop of Amasis in partibus and nuncio 
in England, without the assistance of any 
other ecclesiastic. 

Philip Ellis, the son of an Anglican 
clergyman, and brother to Sir "William 
Ellis, secretary of state to the exiled 
James II., and to the Anglican bishop of 
Killala in Ireland (1705), a pupil at "West- 
minster School, where he professed obe- 
dience to the bishop of Borne, of the Bene- 
dictine College of S. Gregory, Douay 
(1670), one of the chaplains and preachers 
of James II., at Windsor and St. James, 
the first " vicar apostolic " of the Western 
district, was consecrated (1688) to the see 
of Aureliopolis in partibus by Ferdinand 
d'Adda, archbishop of Amasis in partibus, 
tvithout the assistance of any other ecclesias- 
tic. 

Charles Walmsley, educated at the Bene- 
dictine College at Douay, and at Paris, a 
mathematician, an astronomer, and a com- 
mentator, was consecrated (1756) co-ad- 
jut or cum jure successionis to the bishop 
of Nisibi in partibus (in charge of the 
Western district), with title of bishop of 



140 Roman Titulars in England 

Eama in partibus, by Cardinal Lanti, unas- 
sisted. 

Gregory William Sharrock, O.S.B., prior 
of the Benedictine College of S. Gregory, 
ai Douay, elected as co-adjutor cum jure 
successions to Bishop Walmsley and to the 
see of Telmessa, in Lyeia, in partibus, was 
consecrated (1780) by Bishop Walmsley, 
unassisted. 

John Douglass, educated at Douay, pro- 
fessor of philosophy in the English Col- 
lege at Yalladolid, Spain, a priest of the 
mission at Linton and, later, at York, 
elected to the see of Centuria in partibus 
and to the co-adjutorship of the London 
district, was consecrated (1790) by Dr. 
William Gibson, bishop of Acanthus in 
partibus, unassisted. 

Gregory Stapleton, president of the Eng- 
lish College of S. Omer and one of the Douay 
confessors at the time of the French Revo- 
lution, and first president of St. Edmund's 
College, in Hertfordshire, appointed " vicar 
apostolic " of the Midland district and bish- 
op of Hieroc83saria in partibus, w r as conse- 
crated (1801) by Bishop Douglass, titular 
bishop of Centuria in partibus, unassisted. 



Roman Titulars in England 141 

Bernardine Peter Collingriclge, O. S. F., 
who took the habit in the Franciscan Con- 
vent of S. Bonaventura, at Douay, and be- 
came lector of philosophy there, and then 
lector of divinity, and later guardian of 
that convent, and subsequently president of 
the Franciscan Academy, at Baddesley, and 
(1806) provincial of the English Francis- 
cans, elected to the co-adjutorship of the 
Western district, vacant per renuntiationem 
Hieronymi SharrocJc, and episcopus Thes- 
piensi in partibus, was consecrated (1807) 
by Dr. William Poynter episcopus Halien- 
sis in partibus, unassisted. 



No bishops belonging to the Boman 
obedience were intruded into England as 
" vicars apostolic" from 1585 to 1594; 
from 1598 to 1621 ; and from 1655 to 1685. 
During these three periods the Church of 
England was the only Church in the realm. 

According to the report of the Abbe 
Airoldi, internuncio of Flanders, who 
passed over into England (1670) to exam- 
ine into the affairs of religion in the realm, 
the Jesuits and the Franciscans resident 



142 Roman Titulars in England 

there were bitterly opposed to the intro- 
duction of a bishop among them, and pro- 
tested strenuously against the re-establish- 
ment in England of the episcopal office. 



The first episcopal consecration in Eng- 
land more Romano, after the rejection of 
the papal authority, was held in the 
Banqueting Hall, at Whitehall, April 22, 
(O.S.), 1688, when Bonaventure Giffard 
was made bishop of the see of Madaura 
in partibus, with a brief for the adminis- 
tration of the spiritual affairs of the Mid- 
land district. The consecrator was Fer- 
dinand d'Adda, archbishop of Amasis in 
partibus, and nuncio in England. 



The first public confirmation ritu Cathol- 
ico in the kingdom, after the schism 
created by the bull of Pius V. (1569), was 
held in the year 1687, when John Ley- 
burne, bishop of the see of Adrametum in 
partibus sub archiepiscopo Epliisino, visited 
the northern counties and administered 
the rite to some 20,000 individuals. 

Other titular bishops (William Bishop, 
of the see of Chalcedon in partibus (1623), 



Roman Titulars in England 14 



o 



notably and imprimis) had previously ad- 
ministered the rite, with all secrecy, to scat- 
tered members of the Koman communion. 



James Smith, the first titular bishop of 
the Northern district (bishop of Callipolis 
in partibus, 1688-1712) assumed the names 
of Harper, Tarlton, and Brown, at various 
times, to avoid the penal laws. 

George "Witham, bishop of Marcopolis 
in partibus, and " vicar apostolic " of the 
Midland district (1716-1725), was known, 
on occasion, by the alias of Mr. "Markham." 



In the year 1773 there was but one con- 
secrated church in the whole Roman com- 
munion in the Northern district {counties 
of Chester, Lancaster, York, Northumber- 
land, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Durham, 
and Isle of Man). 

AUTHOKITY FOR THIS CHAPTER: 

Annals of the Catholic Hierarchy in England and 
Scotland, a.d. 1585-1876. W. Maziere Brady, Rome, 
1877. The materials on which this compendium is based 
were derived from the archives of the Propaganda and of 
the English College, Rome, from the private archives of 
the Vatican, and the Archivio di Stato^ Rome, and other 
authentic sources. 



XIII 
BOMAN TITULAKS IN SCOTLAND 

1695-1869 



The first council called in Scotland by papal authority- 
was that which was held at Roxburgh (1126) by John of 
Crema, cardinal-legate from Honorius II. 

Reginald (d. 1225), nephew to Olave, the king of The 
Isles, and to Reginald, the ruler of Man, elected by the 
prince and clergy of Man, held the see against Nicholas, 
abbot of Furness, chosen by his own convent, consecrated 
by the archbishop of York, and supported by Honorius III. 

In 15G2 Adam Bothwell, prelate of the Italian Church in 
possession of the see of Orkney, joined Knox's party, being 
confirmed in the bishopric by Queen Mary, and aided and 
abetted the Presbyterians until his death in 1593, perform- 
ing many ordinations. 

About the same time Alexander Gordon, bishop of Gallo- 
way and titular archbishop of Athens, identified himself 
with the new movement, and even petitioned the General 
Assembly of 1562 for the position of " superintendent." 

On the 5th of April, 1571, Archbishop Hamilton, of St. 
Andrews, the last Italian primate of Scotland, attainted 
and declared a traitor by the first parliament of the Regent 
Moray, for his alleged concern in the murder of Lord Darn- 
ley, was hanged on the bridge over the Forth at Stirling, 
* ' the only bishop who ever died by the hands of an ex- 
ecutioner in Scotland. " 

In the year 1603, James Beaton, the Italian incumbent 
of the archiepiscopal see of Glasgow at the time of his flight 
(1560) to the continent from the effects of the Reformation, 
the last survivor of the old Roman succession in Scotland, 
died in Paris, in the enjoyment of the honors, dignities, 
and temporalities of his former see, which had been re- 
stored to him by a special act of Parliament (1598), without 
requiring his acknowledgment of the established religion. 



CHAPTER XIII 
EOMAN TITULABS IN SCOTLAND 

In the year 1653 the Propaganda deter- 
mined to restore the Eoman Church in 
Scotland, and to that end established a 
mission there forthwith. 

Forty-two years later the bishop of Rome 
approved of the election of Thomas Nichol- 
son, of the family of Kemnay in Aberdeen- 
shire, by the Congregation of Propaganda, 
as " vicar apostolic of Scotland ;" and on 
the 27th day of February, 1695, the bishop- 
elect was consecrated to the see of Perista- 
chium in partibus infideliam, by the bishops 
of Agen, Lugon, and Tpres, the ceremony 
being performed in the private chapel of 
the archbishop of Paris. 

In the year 1706, on the 11th of April 
(Low Sunday), James Gordon was conse- 
crated at Montefiascone, " with all secrecy," 
by Cardinal Barberigo, for the see of Nico- 



14:8 Roman Titulars in Scotland 

polis in partibus, having previously (17th 
March) been designated coadjutor to the 
" vicar apostolic " of Scotland ; and on the 
death of Bishop Nicholson (1718) he suc- 
ceeded per coadjutoriam. 

In the year 1720, John Wallace, a Scotch- 
man of Protestant parentage, private almo- 
ner to His Majesty King James, student at 
the Scots College in Paris, priest of the 
mission, having been appointed, on the 
nomination of Bishop Gordon, co-adjutor 
with succession, was consecrated in Edin- 
burgh, " with all secrecy," but Propaganda 
never received the authentic acts and oath 
of consecration. 

On the 23d of July, 1727, Benedict XIII., 
bishop of Borne, ratified the decree of Prop- 
aganda, of date December 17, 1726, crea- 
ting two " vicariates " in Scotland. 

THE LOWLAND DISTKICT, CHEATED 1727. 

In the year 1727, Bishop Gordon became 
" vicar apostolic " of this newly created dis- 
trict, and Bishop "Wallace became his co- 
adjutor. 



Roman Titulars in Scotland 149 

In the year 1735, Alexander Smith, a 
missionary of twenty-four years' experience, 
was consecrated to fill the vacancy created 
by the death of Bishop "Wallace, his briefs 
for the co-adjutorship with succession, and 
as episcopus Mosinopoli in partibus infi- 
delium, dating from September 19, 1735, 
the consecrators being Bishops Gordon and 
Macdonald, and the place Edinboro'. On 
the death of Bishop Gordon (1746) he suc- 
ceeded per coadjutoriam. 

In the year 1755, Bishop Smith, unas- 
sisted, carried out the decree of Propaganda 
(dated 20th January, 1755), and consecrated 
James Grant, twenty-one years on the mis- 
sion, bishop of Sinita in partibus infidelium, 
and his co-adjutor; and in 1766, Bishop 
Smith dying, Grant succeeded per co- 
adjutoriam. 

In the year 1769, George Hay, " exparen- 
tibus hcereticis ad ecclesiam Catholicam re- 
vocatus ab hceresi Calviniana" was conse- 
crated at Scalon, near Glenlivet (on the 21st 
of May, by Bishop Grant, assisted by 
Bishops Hugh and John Macdonald), 
bishop of Daulia in partibus infidelium, and 
co-adjutor to the " vicar apostolic," cam jure 



150 Roman Titulars in Scotland 

successions ; and nine years later he suc- 
ceeded him. 

Two years later (1789) John Geddes, ad 
prcesens Doctor Collegii Scotorum Vallisoli- 
tan., was made co-adjutor cum jure successio- 
ns, and consecrated episcopus Marochien. 
in partibus infidelium by the archbishop of 
Toledo, at Madrid, assisted by the bishops 
of Urgel and Almeria ; but he died before 
the " vicariate " became vacant. 

Shortly after the death of Bishop Geddes 
(1797), Alexander Cameron, also a Scotch- 
man of the Roman communion, and of the 
Scotch College, Rome, was consecrated at 
Madrid, 28th October, 1798, a second co- 
adjutor to Bishop Hay, and episcopus Maxi- 
mianopoli in partibus infidelium ; and in 
1805, on the death of Bishop Hay, he suc- 
ceeded per coadjutoriam. 

In the year 1816, Bishop Cameron, unas- 
sisted, consecrated as his co-adjutor one 
Alexander Patterson, who had been elected 
to this position by Propaganda, and whose 
brief to the see of Cybrista in partibus 
infidelium sub arcliiepiscopo Tyanen., was 
dated May 14, 1816. 

In 1826, Bishop Cameron became the 



Roman Titulars in Scotland 151 

first " vicar apostolic " of the Eastern dis- 
trict. 

THE HIGHLAND DISTRICT, CREATED 1727. 

{The Western part of Scotland^ and islands adjacent.) 

Alexander John Grant, an alumnus of 
the Scotch College, Rome, was duly com- 
missioned by the bishop of Eome (1727) to 
be the first " vicar apostolic " of this new 
" vicariate," and to be consecrated as bishop 
of Sura in partibus infidelium ; but he fell 
sick and died before his elevation to the 
episcopate. 

In the year 1731, Hugh Macdonald, a 
secular priest and nobilis, was appointed 
in locum Presbyteri Alexandri Johannis 
Grant, electi Episcopii Surensis, eique as- 
signare omnes provincias Montanas ejusdem 
Begni unacum insulis adjacentibus, etc., his 
briefs to this "vicariate," and to the see of 
Diana in Numidia in partibus infidelium, 
dating February 12, and was consecrated 
October 18, in Edinburgh, by Bishop Gor- 
don, assisted by Bishop Wallace and a 
priest. 

In the year 1761, John Macdonald, 



152 Roman Titulars in Scotland 

nephew of the aforesaid Hugh Macdonald, 
at the age of thirty-three, was conse- 
crated at Preshome for the see of Tiberi- 
opolis in partibus infidelium, to serve as co- 
adjutor to his uncle ; and, in the year 1773, 
succeeded per coadjutoriam. 

In the year 1780 the bishop of Tiberiopo- 
tis being deceased, one Alexander Macdon- 
ald, of the Scotch College, Eome, on the 
mission in Scotland, was consecrated, at 
Scalan, to the see of Polemonium in par- 
tibus infidelium, and given episcopal over- 
sight of the vacant " vicariate," his conse- 
crators being Bishop Hay and two priests 
(the Eev. Alexander Cameron and the Eev. 
James Macgillivray). 

In 1792 one John Chisholm was conse- 
crated to this " vicariate " (then vacant) and 
to the see of Oria in partibus infidelium, his 
consecrators being Bishop Hay and two 
priests. 

In 1805 iEneas Chisholm, brother to the 
preceding, was consecrated to the co-adju- 
torship cum jure successionis and to the see 
of Diocessaria in partibus infidelium, by 
Bishop Cameron, at Linsmore Seminary. 

In the year 1820, Banald Macdonald, 



Roman Titulars in Scotland 153 



(C 



an old and most deserving missionary in 
those parts," succeeded per obitum JEnece 
Chisholm, Bishop Paterson consecrating 
him at Edinburgh to the see of iEryndela, 
sub archiepiscopo Tarsen., in partibus infide- 
Hum. 



In the year 1827 the Propaganda decreed 
the division of Scotland into three " vica- 
riates " — the Eastern, the Western, and the 
Northern. 

EASTERN DISTRICT, CREATED 1827. 

Up to the date of the Vatican Council 
five titular bishops — Paterson, bishop of 
Cybrista in partibus ; Scott, bishop of Ery- 
thrae in partibus ; Carruthers, with a brief 
to Ceramen. sub archiepiscopo Stauropolitano 
in partibus ; Gillis, bishop of Limyra in 
partibus sub archiepiscopo Myrensi ; and 
John Strain, once a pupil at the high school 
in Edinburgh, a student at the Scots Col- 
lege, Eome, graduate of the College of the 
Propaganda (1833), of the Scotch Mission 
(1834), president of S. Mary's College, 



154: Roman Titulars in Scotland 

Blairs, near Aberdeen, consecrated bishop 
of Abila in partibus, by His Holiness Pius 
IX., in his private chapel in the Vatican 
(1864), made assistant at the pontifical 
throne (1867), and in attendance on every 
session of the Vatican Council— held and 
administered this " vicariate." 



WESTERN DISTRICT, CREATED 1827. 

Six titular bishops held this " vicariate " 
in turn between the years 1827 and 1870 : 
Eanald Macdonald, bishop of Arindela in 
partibus; Andrew Scott, bishop of Ery- 
thrse in partibus (d. 1846) ; John Murdoch, 
bishop of Castabala in partibus sub arch- 
iepisco Anazarbeno, who had previously 
(1833) refused the post of co-adjutor with 
succession to the bishop of Kingston, in 
Upper Canada, with the title of Trabacen. 
in partibus (d. 1863) ; John Gray, bishop 
of Hypsopolis in partibus, who succeeded 
(1865) per coadjutoriam, and resigned the 
"vicariate" in 1869. 

Dr. Lynch, a priest of the congregation 
of S. Vincent de Paul, and rector of the 
Irish College, Paris, who was consecrated 



Roman Titulars in Scotland 155 

bishop of Arcadiopolis in partibus (1866) 
and made co-adjutor to Bishop Gray, was 
relieved (1869) of his Scotch co-adjutorship 
and translated to that of Kildare, Ireland, 
cum jure successionis. 

NORTHERN DISTRICT, CREATED 1827. 

James Francis Kyle, bishop of Germa- 
nicia in partibus, consecrated by Bishop 
Paterson (1828) at Aberdeen, was the first 
" vicar apostolic " of this district ; and he 
was succeeded (1869) by John Macdonald, 
of the Scots Seminary in Batisbon, and, 
later, of the Scots College, Borne, whose 
briefs for the see of Nicopolis in partibus 
and co-adjutor to Bishop Kyle, were dated 
11 December, 1868, his consecrators being 
Bishops Chadwick, Gray, and Strain. 



Of the Boman titulars intruded into 
Scotland after the year 1695, two (James 
Gordon, 1706, and John Wallace, 1720) 
were "consecrated with all secrecy," and 
by one bishop only; four others (James 
Grant, 1755 ; iEneas Chisholm, 1805 ; Ban- 



156 Boman Titulars in Scotland 

aid Macdonald, 1819 ; and Alexander Pat- 
erson, 1816) were also consecrated by one 
bishop only, though openly; one (Hugh 
Macdonald, 1731) was consecrated by two 
bishops and a priest ; and two (Alexander 
Macdonald, 1780; and John Chisholm, 
1792) were consecrated by one bishop and 
two priests. 

Authority for this Chapter : 

Annals of the Catholic Hierarchy in England and Scot- 
land, a.d. 1585-187G." W. Maziere Brady, Rome, 1877. 
u The materials, with the exception of some documents 
from the private archives of the Vatican and from the 
Archivio di Stato in Rome, have been derived from the 
archives of the Propaganda and of the English College in 
Rome, and from other authentic sources." — Preface. 



XIV 
EOMAN TITULAKS IN IRELAND 

1567-1850 



" At the accession of Queen Elizabeth, of all the Irish 
bishops only two were deprived and two others resigned, 
on account of their adherence to the see of Rome. The 
rest continued in their sees, and from them the bishops 
and clergy of the Irish Church derive their orders. The 
bishops and clergy of the Roman Church who have intruded 
into the Irish dioceses derive their orders from Spain and 
Portugal, and not from the Irish Church.'' — Perceval : 
Apology for the Doctrine of Apostolical Succession. 

44 From Curwin, the archbishop of Dublin, recognized 
by the papacy, and who had been consecrated in England 
according to the legal forms of the Roman pontifical, in 
the third year of Queen Mary, Loftus received his episco- 
pal ordination ; and, on his translation to the see of Dub- 
lin, he conveyed the same episcopal character to Lancaster, 
his successor." — Bp. Mant: History of the Church of Ire- 
land. 

44 The Irish orders of the protestant Church, recently dis- 
established, can be traced to Hugh Curwin, archbishop of 
Dublin, of whose ordination there was never any doubt en- 
tertained." 

44 That Hugh Curwin, archbishop of Dublin, who un- 
doubtedly himself possessed valid Orders, consecrated one 
or more protestant bishops, rests upon the evidence of Sir 
James Ware, a most trustworthy and accurate writer, who 
had access to the official registers." — W. Maziere Brady : 
Annals of the Catholic Hierarchy in England and Scot- 
land^ Rome, 1877. 



CHAPTEE XIV 

KOMAN TITULAES IN IRELAND ■ 

Patrick Walsh, promoted to the united 
sees of Waterford and Lismore in 1551, 
by Edward VI., the mandate for his con- 
secration and restitution of temporalities 
being directed to Thomas (Lancaster), 
bishop of Kildare ; Dominic (Tirry), bish- 
op of Cork and Cloyne; John, bishop of 
Eoss; Alexander (Devereux), bishop of 
Ferns ; Eobert (Travers), bishop of Leigh- 
lin ; Nicholas (Comin), late bishop of 
"Waterford and Lismore ; and John Moore 
(suffragan?), bishop of Enachduane, was 
consecrated on the 23d day of October, 
and sat as bishop of Waterford and Lis- 
more after Mary's accession, and continued 
bishop until his death in 1578, when a 
"vicar apostolic" for Waterford and Lis- 
more was appointed by the bishop of 

1 See James Paton : British History and Papal Claims. 



160 Roman Titulars in Ireland 

Eome. In 1629, a bishop was named in 
consistory to fill the united sees, then 
many years vacant per obitum bonce mem- 
oi % ice Walesii. 1 

In the same year, William (as he is 
called in the mandate for his consecration), 
or Edward (as he signed himself) Casey, 
appointed by Edward VI. to the vacant 
see of Limerick, likewise in the province 
of Cashel, was consecrated in Dublin, on 
the 25th of October, by George Brown, 
archbishop of Dublin, assisted by Thomas 
Lancaster, Robert Travers, and Alexander 
Devereux; but when, shortly after the 
accession of Mary, this see was declared 
vacant, Casey's episcopal character being 
utterly ignored, this same Casey, in or 
about the year 1556 (according to Brady), 
did " reconcile " himself to Borne, declar- 
ing, in his letter, that he was "nothing 
canonically consecrated, but, by the scis- 
matical authority of Edward, king of Eng- 
land, scismatically preferred to the bish- 
opric of Limerick;" that "the Boman 
Church is the head of all churches, and 
that the bishop of Borne is the Vicar of 

1 W. Maziere Brady's Catholic Hierarchy, p. 25. 



Roman Titulars in Ireland 161 

Christ in earth, and liath all power of 
binding and loosing by Christ " ; that he 
did " embrace the Rev. Lord David "Wolfe, 
appointed the apostolical messenger for 
all Ireland from the most holy Lord the 
Pope"; and that he craved absolution 
" from all the ecclesiastical sentences, 
censures, punishments, heresies, and every 
other blot," etc. 

In the year 1562, on the 30th of Octo- 
ber, Roger Skiddy was consecrated (pre- 
sumably by Archbishop Curwin) to Cork 
by the Roman ritual, papali ritu, no other 
ordinal being authorized for use in Ireland 
till the second year of Elizabeth. 1 

A little later, Alexander Craike, a 
Scotchman, was consecrated to Kildare, 
by the same Hugh Curwin, whose orders 
have never been called in question. 

On the 2d of March, 1563, Adam Loftus 
was consecrated to Armagh by the same 
archbishop of Dublin, other prelates 
(Skiddy and Craike ?) assisting. 

In the year 1567, the bishop of Rome 
schismatically intruded a titular bishop 

1 Bishop Mant : History of the Ch. of Ireland, i., 219. 
11 



162 Roman Titulars in Ireland 

into Cashel. This is he who wounded 
with a dagger James McCaghwell, the 
regular archbishop of that see, because he 
would not vacate in his favor, and effected 
his escape into Spain ; and who, in the fol- 
lowing year, was sent, in company with the 
titular of Emly, by the rebels in Ireland, 
as ambassadors to the bishop of Rome 
and the king of Spain, to secure their aid 
in wresting the country from Elizabeth. 
In 1572 he turned up in Dundee, where 
he was arrested by order of the Regent 
Mar, when a packet of letters was dis- 
covered in his closet, and among them a 
Latin commission to the pope and king of 
Spain, beseeching them to emancipate 
Ireland from the sway of the queen, and 
promising to restore the old religion both 
there and in Scotland. But for his escape 
on the 8th of August, in the early morn- 
ing, by means of a rope formed out of his 
bed-clothes, he would have been surren- 
dered to Elizabeth, who had made a de- 
mand for his person. 1 

In the year 1578, the Commissioners of 
Faculties in Ireland, appointed by Eliza- 

1 W. Maziere Brady : Catholic Hierarchy, p. 23. 



Roman Titulars in Ireland 1G3 

beth, in 1577, issued a dispensation to 
Eobert Gafney, precentor of Kilkenny, for 
"confirming the orders taken by him of a 
Eunagate from Rome, pretending himself 
to be bishop of Killaloe by the Pope's 
authority." * 

In the year 1580, Dermod McGrahe was 
appointed titular bishop of Cork. 

At a synod held in the diocese of 
Clogher (1587) there were present seven 
titular bishops holding their commissions 
from Eome, viz.: 

The bishop of Derry, styled Eedmundus 
Derrenis ; 

The bishop of Eaphoe, styled Donaldus 
Eapotensis ; 

The bishop of Down and Connor, styled 
Cornelius Dernensis et Connorensis ; 

The bishop of Ardagh, styled Edmundus 
Ardaghodensis ; 

The bishop of Kilmore, styled Eichardus 
Kilmorensis ; 

The bishop of Clogher, styled Cornelius 
Clogherensis ; 

1 Lawson : Scot. Epis. Ch. from the Reformation, p. 
116. 



164 Homan Titulars in Ireland 

The bishop of Achonry, styled Eugenius 
Aghadensis. 

In the year 1600 one Matthew d'Oviedo 
was made titular archbishop of Dublin. 

Before the death of Elizabeth the bishop 
of Borne, as it is on record in certain state 
papers, appointed one Peter Lumbard tit- 
ular primate of Armagh. 

Among the state papers of James I. is 
one from Sir John Davys to the Earl of 
Salisbury, of date November 12, 1606, in 
which he particularizes "the pope's titulary 
bishops " as follows : — 

" In Ulster : Dr. Peter Lumbard, bear- 
ing the title of primate of Armagh. He 
is now at the court of Borne, where he has 
a pension from the pope of two hundred 
ducats a month. 

One O 'Boyle hath the title of bishop of 
Bapo, in Tirconnel ; he was born in that 
country and resideth there. 

Connor O'Dovenny hath the name of 
bishop of Down and Connor. . . . He 
was brought into our camp in the habit 
of a Franciscan. 

Bichard Brady is titular bishop of Kil- 
more. Very aged. 



Roman Titulars in Ireland 165 

Jo. Gawne is called bishop of Armagh ; 
his abode is uncertain. 

Owen Mclvor McMahon, designed bish- 
op of Clogher, is now in Germany. 

These are the pope's bishops in Ul- 
ster. 

" In Leinster : One Matthias, a Spanish 
friar, hath title of archbishop of Dublin ; 
he now liveth in a monastery in Spain ; he 
hath a pension of three hundred ducats 
"per diem. 

Franciscus di Rivera is the supposed 
bishop of Leighton ; he is now resident at 
Antwerp. 

Robert Lalor, the priest who is now in 
the Castle of Dublin, is nominated bishop 
of Kildare. 

"In jVIounster : David O'Kerny is made 
by the pope archbishop of Cashel ; he liv- 
eth in the liberty of Tipperary. 

Thomas "White, born in "Waterford and 
nephew to Dr. Lumbard, the pretended 
primate of Armagh, hath the title of bishop 
of Waterford. He hath a benefice in the 
Low Countries, but liveth with his uncle 
at Rome. 

Dr. James White is called bishop of 



166 Roman Titulars in Ireland 

Limerick, but resideth at Clonnel, in the 
liberty of Tipperary. 

" In Connaught : Florence O'Mulconner 
hath the name of archbishop of Tuame, 
but liveth in the court of Spain. 

One O'Mulrian, a native of the county 
of Limerick, is styled bishop of Killaloe ; 
he liveth at Lisbon, and hath a pension of 
the king of Spain. 

There are some other bishoprics in the 
kingdom for which the pope hath pro- 
vided bishops, of whom I have no certain 
intelligence." 

In the year 1610, the proclamation of 4 
July, 1605, against titular bishops was re- 
vived, and the bishop of Down was appre- 
hended. 

In the year 1642 Hugh O'Neile, titular 
primate of Armagh, summoned the bishops 
and clergy of his province to a synod to 
be held at Kells ; but Thomas Diaz, titu- 
lar bishop of Meath, would not recognize 
his authority, and failed to appear. 

According to Bishop Mant, there were 
Roman titulars at Cashel and Tuam also. 

In the year 1631, General Malachy 



Roman Titulars in Ireland 167 

O'Kelly, titular archbishop of Tuam, lost 
his life in a battle between the Confeder- 
ates and the Protestants of the north of 
Ireland; and in his pocket the searchers 
found a complete and authentic copy of 
the treaty with Charles I. 

By act of Parliament (George III.) all 
prelates in communion with the Church of 
Rome were prohibited from entering the 
kingdom. 

Dr. Luke Fagan, titular archbishop of 
Dublin, who died in 1733, resided there, 
however, a long term of years. 

James O'Gallagher, titular bishop of 
Eaphoe, and later of Kildare, took up 
his abode in an humble tenement in a vil- 
lage on the Bog of Allen, absenting himself 
for months at a time, when, staff in hand, 
he was going the rounds, confirming and 
ordaining. 

Dr. Bryan Macmahon, titular archbishop 
of Armagh (1738-47), lived in a small 
farm-house in Meath, where he was known 
as "Mr. Curtis." 

His successor, Michael O'Reilly, could 
have been found on a farm near Drogheda. 



168 Roman Titulars in Ireland 

Dr. Thomas De Burgo, who died in 
1776, is said to have been the last titular 
bishop in Ireland who owed his position 
to The Pretender. 



part 5econ& 
xv 

MARRIED RISHOPS 



"It behooveth therefore a Bishop to be. . . . the 
husband of one wife. . . . having his children subject 
with all chastity." — S, Paul^ in Rhemish Version. 



CHAPTEE XV 
MAEEIED BISHOPS 1 

Ignatius, the pupil of S. John the Evan- 
gelist, says: "Peter and other of the 
apostles of Christ were married men." 

Clement, of Alexandria, in the third 
book of his Stromata, says : " Peter and 
Philip had children ; and Paul does not 
demur in a certain epistle to mention his 
own wife, whom he did not take about with 
him, in order to expedite his ministry the 
better." In the seventh book of the same 
work he says : " They relate that the 
blessed Peter, seeing his own wife led 
away to execution, cried to her in a con- 
solatory and encouraging voice, addressing 
her by name : ' Oh, thou, remember the 
Lord ! ' " 

Ambrose says (in 2 Cor. xi.) : " All the 
apostles had wives, only John and Paul 

1 See Chapter XX. (Bpiscopoe) in The Bishops' Blub 
Book. 



172 Married Bishops 

excepted:" — Omnes apostoli, exceptis Jo- 
hanne et Paulo, uxores habuerunt. 

Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus, in the lat- 
ter part of the lid century, says in a letter 
to Victor of Rome : " Seven of my ances- 
tors (avyyevets, translated parentes by Ru- 
finns) have been bishops, and I am the 
eighth." 

Chaeremon, bishop of Nilus (circ. 250), 
it is related by Eusebius (vi., c. xlii.), was 
sent into banishment with his wife — ajxa 
tTj <tv/jl(3l(p avrov. 

Irenseus, bishop of Mitrovitz on the 
Save, in Pannonia (Hungary), whose head 
was cut off and body cast into the river on 
the 25th of March, 304, by order of the 
governor, was a married man, and, when 
brought before the tribunal, his wife and 
children stood with him, the little ones en- 
treating him not to leave them, and their 
mother conjuring him to submit to the 
imperial edict. 

Phileas, a wealthy nobleman of Thmuis, 
in Egypt, who had been elected bishop of 
that city, and was subsequently martyred 



Married Bishops 173 

in the persecution of Diocletian (circ. 304), 
was told by the governor of Alexandria, in 
the course of his examination, " Thy poor 
wife is looking at thee." Whereupon his 
answer was : " Jesus Christ calls me to 
glory, and He can also, if He pleases, call 
my wife." 

Urbicius, a senator, chosen bishop of 
Clermont (circ. 312), was a married man, 
and he had a daughter born to him some 
time after his elevation to the episcopate. 

Theognis, who suffered in the persecu- 
tion of Licinius, at Cyzicus, being first 
scourged, and then cast into the sea, was 
the son of the bishop of that district. 

Gruter (Inscrip. Antiq.) has transcribed 
this inscription from one of the stones in 
the Catacombs : 

"My wife Laurentia made me this 
tomb ; she was ever suited to my dispo- 
sition, venerable and faithful. At length 
disappointed envy lies crushed : the bish- 
op Leo survived his eightieth year." 

The date is a.d. 366 ; and Leo is 
thought to have been Liberius, bishop of 
Rome, sometimes known as Leo. 

Gregory the Illuminator, of the royal 



174 Married Bishops 

Arsacictae, the apostle of Armenia, or- 
dained patriarch 302, was married to a 
woman named Mary, by whom he had 
two sons, Vithanes and Arisdaghes, the 
latter of whom was, in due time, conse- 
crated patriarch of all Armenia by his 
father and a synod of bishops. 

Severus, a bishop of Eavenna, a spinner 
by trade, who died 390, was a married 
man, and his wife's name was Vincentia. 

Flavius Dexter, a close friend of Je- 
rome, was the son of Pacian, bishop of 
Alexandria, and the author of a " Book on 
Baptism," a " Call to Penitence," " Epis- 
tles against the Novatians," etc. ; and he 
died (circ. 385) in the reign of Theodo- 
sius. 

De Bossi cites, under date 404, the fol- 
lowing inscription from the Catacombs, of 
a bishop's son : " Victor in pace filivs 

EPISCOPI YICTORIS CIYITATIS VERENSIVM." — 

" Victor, in peace, son of Bishop Victor of 
the city of the Ucrenses." 

In the year 414 Innocent I. (bishop of 
Borne) complained that many bishops were 
married to widows. 



Married Bishops 175 

Paulinus (d. 431), patrician, orator, poet, 
prefect of Eome, priest, hermit, bishop of 
Nolan, was a married man, and the wife's 
name was Tharasia. 

Principius, bishop of Soissons, to whom 
Sidonius Apollinaris wrote as " Papa Prin- 
cipius," was a married man, and had a son 
named Lupus. 

Busticus, bishop of Narbonne {circ. 427), 
was the son of Bonosus, a bishop, and his 
Benjamin, the child of his old age (cf. Je- 
rome's letter to Busticus, 411), and of him 
it is recorded that he wished to resign his 
diocese on account of the troublous times. 
His epitaph has been found at Narbonne 
(date 445), and is as follows : BVSTICVS 
• EPIS • EPI • BONOSI • FILIVS . . . 
" Bishop Eusticus, son of Bishop Bonosus." 

Isichius, archbishop of Yienne (d. 494), 
had a wife, Audentia, a daughter named 
Fascina, and two sons, one of whom (Avi- 
tus) succeeded his father as metropolitan, 
while the other (Apollinaris) became (499) 
bishop of Valence. 

Sylverius, bishop of Eome (536-538), 
was the son of Bishop Hormisda. 



176 Married Bishops 

Gregory, bishop of Tours (573-594), 
who was the great-grandson of Bishop 
Gregory, of Langres, has somewhat to say 
of a certain bishop's wife who was wont 
to mutilate men and to torture women, by 
applying red-hot irons to the most sensi- 
tive parts of their bodies ; and, in another 
place (IV. 36), he writes of another bishop's 
wife, notorious for her despotic cruelty. 

Chlodulf (Cloud in France), who was 
elevated late in life to fill the vacant see 
of Metz, and while a layman, was the son 
of Arnoald (d. 640), bishop of Metz. 

Adrian II., bishop of Eome (867-872), 
was the son of a bishop named Taralus, 
and had a wife (Stefania) and a daughter 
when elevated to the episcopate. 

Agelmar, bishop of Elmham, just before 
the Conquest, was a married prelate. 

Ailvic, bishop of Chichester (circ. 1060), 
but not, as Agelmar, brother to the arch- 
bishop, married, and was deposed there- 
for. 

Of Archbishop Heirbert (1019-1045), a 
Milan chron. MS. flos florum, contains 



Married Bishops 177 

this record : " Hio archiepisc. habuit uxe- 

RIAM, NOBILEM MULIEREM, UXOREM I QU2& 
DONAYIT DOTEM SUAM MONASTERIO S. DIONY- 
SII, QUM USQUE HODIE UXERIA DICITUR." 

In this century bishops' wives contended 
for precedence, on state occasions, with the 
wives of counts and barons. 

John, bishop of Holan, in North Iceland, 
who died 1121, was twice married after 
taking orders. 

Richard, archdeacon of Coventry, who 
was consecrated bishop of Coventry and 
Lichfield by Archbishop Theobald, of 
Canterbury, was son to Eobert, bishop of 
Chester. 

Innocent III., bishop of Eome (1198- 
1216), accused the archbishop of Prague 
quod uxor em evidenter haberet, de qua filios 
generavit. 

Alexander VI., of infamous memory, 
bishop of Rome (1492), was a married 
cardinal-bishop when elevated to the papal 
chair, his wife being Julia Farnese, and 
his children, Louis, Csesar, John, Godfrey, 
and Lucretia Borgia. 
12 



178 Married Bishops 

Guillaume Brigonnet, who was made 
bishop of Lodeve in 1504, and of Meaux 
in 1516, was the son of Cardinal Brigonnet, 
archbishop of Narbonne. 

Cardinal Beaton, lord privy seal, bishop 
of St. Andrews, chancellor of Scotland, 
patriot and soldier (murdered 1546), left 
a family of several sons and one daughter, 
having contracted a marriage with Marion 
Ogilvie before receiving deacon's orders, 
and continuing to live with her until they 
were separated by death. 

George v. Polenz, the first prelate of 
the Latin Church to espouse the cause of 
Luther (in whose cathedral at Konigs- 
berg, Brissmann, a former Franciscan, 
preached (September 24, 1523) one of the 
earliest sermons in behalf of the Reforma- 
tion) ; the bishop who (January 15, 1524) 
issued the order that thenceforth the native 
language must be used in all sermons and 
baptisms throughout Prussia, recommend- 
ing at the same time Luther's Bible and 
other writings ; against whom Clement IV. 
issued (December 1, 1524) a mandate ; to 
whom Luther (1525) dedicated his com- 
mentary on Deuteronomy ; and who short- 



Married Bishops 179 

ly after retired from the administration of 
his diocese on account of ill-health ; — mar- 
ried late in life, residing at the palace of 
Balga thereafter. 

Gebhard II., archbishop and elector of 
Cologne, having fallen desperately in love 
with Duchess Agnes, a woman of rare 
beauty, joined the Evangelical body (1582) 
and married her, for which he was de- 
prived of his archiepiscopal dignity and 
excommunicated by the pope (1583), but 
shortly after appealed to arms to defend 
his rights against the new archbishop, 
Duke Ernst, of Bavaria. 

The bishop of Moray, whose seat was at 
Scone, was a married man, for it is related 
that when the Abbey there was destroyed 
by fire (1559) through the influence of 
Knox, a raider from Dundee, who attempt- 
ed to force the door, was wounded sore by 
the son of the diocesan. 

Gregory XIV., 1 bishop of Eome (De- 

1 According to Pope Damasus, who died in 1048, Felix 
III., Gelasius I., Boniface, Agapetus, John X., and John 
XV., all bishops of Rome, were the sons of priests. All 
the world knows that Sylverius, Theodorus, Adrian II., 
and Gregory XIV., likewise bishops of Rome, were the 



180 Married Bishops 

cember 5, 1590, to October 15, 1591) was 
the son of the bishop of Cremona. 

children of the successors of the apostles ; and some of the 
most illustrious bishops of all ages have been sons of 
bishops. 



XVI 
LAY BISHOPS 



CHAPTEE XVI 
LAY BISHOPS 

Gregory, a descendant of the royal Me- 
rovingian house, the favorite pupil of Bon- 
iface, "the Apostle of Germany," whom 
he met familiarly in the monastery of 
Pf alzel, near Treves, succeeded Willibrord, 
the Anglo-Saxon missionary, in the admin- 
istration of the see of Utrecht (740-775) ; 
but he was never consecrated. Although 
it cannot be positively affirmed that he 
elevated Lebuin to the episcopate before 
sending him, with Marcellin, into Fries- 
land (one historian explaining that he had 
caused Alubert, an English priest, to be 
ordained to perform episcopal functions in 
his name), it is certain that the layman 
was the ordinary of the diocese. 

Henry II. (d. 1189) gave the see of Lin- 
coln to his natural son, a mere lad, who 
held the see for eight years, though he was 
not even a priest. 



184 Lay Bishops 

According to Bernard of Clairvaux, in 
his " Life of Malachy," eight married men 
and without ordination, though men of 
learning, preceded Celsus (who died 1129) 
in the see of Armagh ; and under these 
"lay archbishops" the sacrament of con- 
firmation had been altogether omitted, and 
every diocese had its own " use," to the 
utter confounding of a stranger, as appears 
in the complaint of Gilbert of Limerick, 
who averred that "a man accustomed to 
the offices of the Church in one diocese, on 
going into another, found himself like an 
idiot in the church, not understanding 
what was being said or done." 

At the close of this century, the Wal- 
denses, proscribed by the Roman Church 
at the council at Verona (1183), instituted 
an independent ecclesiastical hierarchy, 
with " bishops " ordained by Peter Waldo, 
a citizen of Lyons ; and from these old 
Waldensian "bishops," without the suc- 
cession and without consecration, are de- 
scended the " bishops " of the Bohemian 
Brethren, and the Herrnhuters. 1 

According to William of Newbury and 

1 See chapter on Schismatic Prelates. 



Lay Bishops 185 

other ancient authors, Wimund (Malcolm 
Macheth) was bishop of Man some time in 
this century, and yet " it is almost certain 
that he was never consecrated." He was 
married to a daughter of Somerled of Ar- 
gyll, and his son rose in rebellion against 
Malcolm IV. Ailred, of Bievaux ( Vitce An- 
tiquce, p. 447), calls him "pseudo-episcojoum" 
He claimed to be a son of Angus, earl of 
Murray, who had fallen (1130) in an upris- 
ing against King David. A transcriber of 
old writings in religious houses, and, later, 
a Cistercian monk at Furness, he may have 
been sent to Man, at the time of the foun- 
dation of Eushin Abbey by King Olave, 
and the islanders may have demanded him 
as their bishop. But he turned out a ban- 
dit, and pillaged the coasts of Scotland. 
On one of his expeditions he was taken 
prisoner and blinded. 1 

The notorious Pandulf , the papal legate, 
appointed bishop of Norwich (1218), would 
not consent to consecration until he had 
been seven years in the enjoyment of the 
revenues of the see. 

1 Grub's Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, i , 271. 



186 Lay Bishops 

Florence, the son of Count Florence, of 
Holland, elected to the archbishopric of 
Glasgow, played the metropolitan there for 
five years, without consecration, and then 
(1207) resigned. 1 

The Taborites, one of the parties in the 
Hussite camp, organized themselves (1457) 
as the Unitas Fratrum, assuming the name 
of Bohemian or Moravian brethren. Ten 
years later, concealed in forests and wor- 
shipping in caves (hence called Picards)^ 
they chose, by lot, three of their number 
to serve as pastors. Michael v. Bradacz, a 
minister in the vicinity, went to the Wal- 
densian bishop (one of the succession insti- 
tuted by Peter Waldo, the layman) for or- 
dination, and, on his return, ordained the 
three brethren chosen at Lhota, — two of 
them as priests, the other (Mathias of 
Kunwald) as hisliop ! 

In 1482, William Elphinstone, of noble 
birth, a learned advocate before the Church 
courts, priest, pastor of Kirkmichael, rec- 
tor of the university of Glasgow, official of 

1 Cosmo Innes's Scotland in the Middle Ages, 39. 



Lay Bishops 187 

Lothian, royal ambassador, nominated to 
the see of Eoss by James III., was styled 
elect and confirmed of that diocese, in 
March, but seems not to have been conse- 
crated until after his translation (Novem- 
ber, 1483) to Aberdeen. 1 

William Sheves, of S. Andrews, arch- 
bishop, dying 1497, James, duke of Eoss, 
brother of James IV., was raised to the 
metropolitan see, though only twenty- one 
years of age ; but " there is no record of 
his consecration, nor is the fact alluded to 
by the historians of the time," and, as 
Grub goes on to say (i. 395), it is per- 
haps a presumption against his consecra- 
tion, that we find him dating a charter by 
the year, not of his consecration, but of his 
metropolitan government. He was regu- 
larly called " archbishop," however, and 
played the archbishop to the day of his 
death in 1503. 

In 1509, this same primatial see of 
Scotland was bestowed, by king and pope 
conjointly, on Alexander Stuart, an ille- 

J Grub: Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, i., pp. 391, 
405. 



188 Lay Bishops 

gitimate son of the monarch, a boy of six- 
teen, for whom the father in vain, as it 
would seem, petitioned his master at Rome 
to appoint a Dominican friar, duly conse- 
crated, as suffragan. Four years later the 
youthful prelate lay dead at Flodden. 1 

In the year 1542 Robert Stewart, the 
second son of John, third earl of Lennox, 
was designated bishop of Caithness, and 
was, later, invested with the temporalities 
of that see, though he was never in holy 
orders. By royal charter, dated June, 
1578, he became sixth earl of Lennox, but 
retained his title of " bishop of Caithness' 7 
to the day of his death (1586). In the 
commission signed at Leith (1571) he is 
styled the Right Reverend Father in God, 
Robert, bishop of Caithness, and the next 
year he " assisted " in the " consecration " 
of John Douglas, the first Tulchan bish- 
op, the other " consecrators " being the 
superintendent of Lothian and David 
Lindsay — all of them laymen. 

In the year 1558, James Hamilton, a 
natural son of the earl of Arran, regent 
of the kingdom, was appointed to the see 

iGrub, i., 396. 



Lay Bishops 189 

of Argyll, but there is no evidence of his 
consecration, although his name appears 
as James, bishop of Argyll, in the list of 
the reformers present in the Parliament 
of 1560; and in 1567 his signature was 
affixed to the bond to release Queen Mary 
from prison. 

In the year 1566, John Carsewell, the 
superintendent of Argyll, was appointed 
to the bishopric of the Isles, and, although 
he was never consecrated, sat in the Par- 
liament which met at Edinburgh on April 
16, 1567, with the prelates of the Latin 
church — the archbishop of S. Andrews, 
and the bishops of Dunkeld, Galloway, 
Dunblane, Brechin, Orkney, Aberdeen, 
and Ross. 

In the same year (1566) Alexander 
Campbell, of the Ardkinglas family, was 
nominated to the see of Brechin, and, 
though never consecrated, figured exten- 
sively in the history of those times as the 
" bishop of Brechin," and retained his seat 
in Parliament till his death in 1606, albeit 
he was only a " preacher " at Brechin. 

About this same time John Campbell, 
commendator of Iona and Ardchattan, was 



190 Lay Bishojps 

" bishop" of the Isles, as successor to 
Alexander Gordon, " archbishop of Ath- 
ens," one of the pope's prelates, and sat in 
Parliament, though he was never either 
confirmed or consecrated. 

On the death of John Hamilton, the last 
archbishop of S. Andrews of the ancient 
line, who was hanged on April 6, 1571, for 
alleged complicity in the murder of Darn- 
ley, one. Eobert Hay, a member of the 
Eoman communion, was elected to the 
see ; but he was never consecrated, though 
it is said by contemporary writers that 
from time to time " he performed various 
acts of jurisdiction, not only in his own 
province, but in that of Glasgow." 

The year of the archbishop's execution 
also ushered in the era of the Tulchan 
bishops 1 — " bishops " without the succes- 
sion, and without consecration ; and, for 
forty years save one, the church of Scot- 
land was under the tutelage of a phantom 
episcopacy, and subject to the discipline 
of a kirk hostile to the apostolical con- 
stitution of the Church. 

1 See chapter on Tulchan Bishops. 



Lay Bishops 191 

In the year 1800, Philip William Otterbein, a learned 
and devout missionary of the German Reformed Church 
in America, organized the United Brethren in CJirist and 
was chosen its first " bishop." 

In 1816, at the anniversary of the peace and his corona- 
tion, Frederick William III., of Prussia, appointed two 
preachers " bishops " of the Evangelical Church, in re- 
turn for services rendered, and conferred upon them the 
rank of royal chief presidents (previously enjoyed by bish- 
ops of the Latin Church), with other episcopal honors, and 
especially corresponding official robes. Since then, the 
title bishop has often been given to general superin- 
tendents. 

The new (1853) ecclesiastical polity of Oldenburg, a 
Lutheran country, invests the ruler with the chief epis- 
copacy. 

In 1857, the royal high-episcopate of Bavaria declared 
the union of the two national synods at an end, and they 
met that year as two bodies — one in October at Anspach, 
the other in November at Baireuth. 

In 1863, Frederick VII., of Denmark, conferred the 
honorary title of u bishop" on Nicolai Frederick Severin 
Grundtvig, teacher, pastor, hymn-writer, and the Scandi- 
navian poet of Whitsuntide. 

According to Riietschi, the chief magistrate of Iceland 
is reckoned the summits episcopus, and he exercises his 
authority partly through bishops, partly through civil 
officers. 

The Rev. Professor Jacobs, in Vol. IV. of ' ' The Ameri- 
can Church History Series," says of the early Swedish 
Church : * 4 The king was their chief bishop, who acted 
either through the archbishop of Upsala or the bishop of 
Skara, Svedberg, in the case of these churches." And to- 
day the king is its chief bishop, expressly styled in their 
Church law Summus Episcopus. 

Jacobson records the fact that the title archbishop was 



192 Lay Bishops 

conferred by a cabinet decree of April 19, 1829, upon 
Borowski, a Lutheran bishop in Prussia. 

Referring, presumably, to Charles Morgan, son of a 
strolling piper of the county of Londonderry, a Roman- 
ist, a Protestant, twice married, and finally surnamed 
after his second spouse, rector in the diocese of Ross, 
1789 ; dean of Ardagh, 1790 ; dean of Clonmacnois, 1800 ; 
bishop of Limerick, 1806 ; bishop of Cloyne, 1820 — Arch- 
bishop Whateley once said that, even in the memory of 
persons living, there flourished a bishop concerning whom 
doubts existed in the minds of some persons whether he 
had ever been ordained at all. The curious reader will 
find a full account of this strange man in the North Brit- 
ish Revieio, December, 1866. 



XVII 
PEESBYTEEAL BISHOPS 



"It is evident unto all men diligently reading Holy 
Scripture and ancient Authors, that from the Apostles' 
time there have been these Orders of Ministers in Christ's 
Church — Bishops, Priests, and Deacons." — Preface to the 
Ordinal. 

" Persons can only transmit that which they themselves 
possess." 

" Valid orders can only be transmitted by bishops pos- 
sessed of valid orders." — W. Mazier e Brady. 



CHAPTEE XVII 
PEESBYTEEAL BISHOPS 

Mani, a descendant of the Persian Magi, 
the founder of Manichaeism — an attempt at 
a universal religion by the combination of 
Christianity with Parseeism — was only a 
presbyter at the time of his death (277), 
and yet, as head of his Church, he had the 
making and control of seventy-two " bish- 
ops" (as Augustine calls them), besides 
presbyters, deacons, and evangelists. At 
the close of the nid century his " bishops " 
had established a flourishing settlement on 
the coast of Malabar (whence, as some sug- 
gest, the old Thomas-Christians of India), 
and two hundred years later had made their 
way into Egypt and Rome, and subse- 
quently were found in Spain, Southern 
France, and the Eastern Empire. 

Rokycana, a Bohemian priest, the chief 
controversialist on the Hussite side in the 



196 Presbyteral Bishops 

conferences at Basle, the representative of 
those who were in favor of reunion with 
Korae on the basis of The Four Articles, 
was secretly elected (1435) archbishop of 
Prag, with two suffragans, before the Com- 
pacts were signed, and posed as the head of 
the National Church of Bohemia until his 
death in 1471 ; but in the xvith century 
the Callixtines, as they were called (from 
calix = cup, because they insisted on the 
Eucharist in both kinds), had wholly dis- 
appeared. 

In the year 1542, on the twentieth day 
of January, in the presence of the elector 
and a vast crowd of people, Nicolas von 
Amsdorf (originally canon of All Saints' 
monastery connected with the university 
of "Wittenberg, later a warm friend of the 
German Reformation, and then minister of 
S. Ulrich, a controversialist, and " a theo- 
logian by nature ") was " consecrated," by 
Martin Luther (priest), successor to the 
bishop of -Naumburg-Zeitz, and, as Luther 
coarsely put it, "without chrism, and also 
without butter, lard, fat, grease, incense, or 
coals"; but the battle of Miihlberg (1547) 



Presbyteral Bishops 197 

forced Mm out of the see. The chapter, 
however, eventually became Lutheran. 

Three years later the same Martin Luther 
"consecrated" George III., prince of An- 
halt (originally canon at Merseburg, then 
student of civil and canonical law at Leip- 
sic, then priest, and (1526) provost at the 
cathedral at Magdeburg), "bishop" of 
Merseburg, Melanchthon and other minis- 
ters "assisting." The prince had desired 
episcopal ordination from a bishop of the 
old line, and had selected Matthias von 
Jagow, bishop of Brandenburg, a convert 
(1539) to the Reformation, as his con- 
secrator. But when death intervened and 
took the bishop off, he consented to receive 
his apostolical commission from the famous 
priest whom he called " a true bishop, who 
truly fed the church of God " ; and as 
"bishop " of Merseburg he convoked synods 
twice each year in the cathedral. The 
battle of Miihlberg was fatal to his au- 
thority, as to that of Amsdorf, and Michael 
Helding, the papal prelate, took possession 
of the see. Of him, too, it could have been 
said that he was "unmarried, talented, 
learned, and noble." He died 1553. 



198 Presbyteral Bishops 

In Denmark, Christian III., having sub- 
dued the revolted country, convened (1536) 
the diet of Copenhagen, which formally de- 
posed all the bishops of the Roman com- 
munion holding sees therein, and sum- 
moned John Bugenhagen Grammaticus 
(originally rector of the school at Treptow 
on the Rega, converted to the Reformation 
by a perusal of Luther's " Babylonian Cap- 
tivity," and then pastor at "Wittenberg) to 
reorganize the Church, who, without having 
received the apostolical commission himself, 
laid hands on seven men whom he ordained 
" superintendents," but for which the title 
"bishops" was subsequently substituted. 
According to one of the Schaffs, although 
the bishops of the Church of Denmark have 
no claim whatever to apostolic succession, 
the English bishops of India have recog- 
nized Danish ordination. 

In Sweden, Gustavus Vasa having ap- 
plied in vain to Adrian VI., bishop of Rome, 
to initiate measures of reform in his com- 
munion, the Bible having been translated 
into the vernacular, and the clergy, at the 
assembly at Oerebro (1529), having sanc- 
tioned all the reforms which had been in- 



Presbyteral Bishops 199 

troduced by the government on the advice 
of Luther, Lawrence Petersen, a professor 
at Upsala, was appointed (1531), by the 
king, archbishop of Upsala and primate of 
Sweden, but there is no evidence that he 
was ever consecrated. He went to Rome, 
it would seem, to consult with the bishop 
there upon the matter, and, subsequently, 
he laid his hands on many by way of ordi- 
nation ; but the records of that period have 
been burnt, and the validity of his own 
orders is yet to be determined. Nor is it 
clear that his successor, also a Lawrence 
Petersen (Laurentius Petri Gothus), was 
duly elevated to the episcopate. True, he 
was " consecrated " (1575) by Paul Justin, 
bishop of Abo. But who consecrated Justin ? 
This question is still unanswered ; and un- 
til it is decided the Church must hesitate to 
own the apostolical commission of Abraham 
Andreae, the son-in-law and successor (1593) 
of Laurentius Petri, who died in the castle 
of Gripsholm, a prisoner under suspicion. 
The Rev. D. S. Schaff says that " the con- 
fessions of the Swedish Church recognize 
the equality of the ministry." 

In Iceland, Gizur Einarssen, a Lutheran, 



200 Presbyteral Bishops 

became (1540) bishop of Skalaholt; but 
what bishop of the old line conferred the 
episcopal office on him ? * 

On April 26, 1568, John Jewell, bishop 
of Salisbury, wrote a letter (numbered xlv. 
in Dr. Jelf's edition of the collected works 
of that learned apologist) to Archbishop 
Parker in these words : " Whereas I wrote 
of late unto your grace touching this bearer 
M. Lancaster, now elect of Armagh, that it 
might please your grace to stay him from 
further ordering of ministers, it may now 
like the same to understand that I have 
since communed with the said M. Lan- 
caster concerning the same, and find by his 
own confession that he hath already order- 
ed divers, although not so many as it was 
reported ; howbeit among the same he 
both admitted and ordered one, whom by 
the space of these eight years I, for many 
good and just causes, me moving evermore 
have refused." Who was this Lancaster ? 
Bishop-elect of Armagh. Only bishop- 
elect ? Yes ; for he was not consecrated, 

1 The Lutheran Church has for the most part abandoned 
episcopacy. In Germany one order of the ministry only 
is recognized. — Schaff-Herzog Encyclopaedia. 



Presbyteral Bishojps 201 

according to Sir James Ware and the Lof- 
tus MSS., until June 13th following, when 
he was elevated to the episcopal order by 
Adam Loftus, archbishop of Dublin, Hugh 
Brady, bishop of Meath, and Robert Daly, 
bishop of Kildare. Then he was only a 
presbyter when the bishop of Salisbury 
wrote to the primate to stay him from 
further ordering of ministers ? That was 
all. And yet he presumed to confer holy 
orders ? Yes ; and it does not appear that 
either of the bishops contemplated the re- 
jection of these orders as null and void. 

But there is more. Sir James Ware, a 
most careful authority, further attests that 
this same Thomas Lancaster, then treasurer 
of Salisbury, was consecrated in July, 1550, 
to the see of Kildare, in Ireland, by George 
Brown, archbishop of Dublin. A case of 
mistaken identity ? No ; for there is ex- 
tant a letter of Queen Elizabeth, dated 
March 28, 1568, in which Thomas Lan- 
caster, promoted by her to the see of 
Armagh, is described as one who had been 
and was bishop of Kildare, and, in the 
words of Cecil's postscript, " therein for 
the time proved very laudably." Then this 



202 Presbyteral Bishops 

Lancaster was twice consecrated — once, in 
1550, to Kildare ; and again, in 1568, to 
Armagh? Either that ; or he exercised the 
functions of a bishop for eighteen years 
without episcopal ordination or consecra- 
tion, and gave authority to scores of men 
to execute the office of a deacon or a priest 
in the Church of God without having re- 
ceived the apostolical commission himself. 
Strange, too, was it that, in spite of these 
irregularities, Thomas Lancaster was al- 
lowed to be consecrated archbishop of Ar- 
magh. 

Ernest of Bavaria was never consecrated, 
and yet, when he died (1612) he was arch- 
bishop of Cologne and bishop of four other 
sees. The same may be said of John of 
Bavaria. And as late as 1640 the bishopric 
of Mentz was held by a layman, Henri de 
Bourbon, bastard son of Henri IV., to 
whom it was assigned by the great Richelieu 
himself. 

In 1671, when John Amos Comenius 
died, the last " bishop " of the original 
Bohemian Brethren was gathered to his 
fathers. The Beneived Moravian Church, 



Presbyteral Bishops 203 

which dates from the year 1727, claims to 
have received the succession through the 
Waldexisian " bishop," Stephens (1467). In 
1749 the British parliament recognized the 
validity of Moravian ordination. 1 

In the year 1784, John Wesley, 2 presby- 
ter, assisted by Mr. Creighton, a preacher 
of the Methodist connection, ordained 
Thomas Coke, D.C.L. (a gentleman com- 
moner of Jesus College, Oxford, and, later, 
curate of South Petherton, Somersetshire), 
superintendent of the Methodists in Amer- 

1 "Moravian bishops are only titular ones ; they have 
no diocese, no church government, nor ban." — Professor 
Kurtz (University of Dorp at). 

2 That Wesley applied to the bishop of London to ordain 
4 'only one" of his preachers is history. Failing in this, 
he seems to have petitioned, orally or by letter, Bishop 
Kilgour, Primus of the Scottish Church, to consecrate the 
Rev. Dr. Coke, of the Church of England, and inject him 
into the succession. Again refused, he took the matter 
into his own hands, and, in his manifesto to Dr. Coke, 
etc., took the opportunity to say : " Lord King's account 
of the Primitive Church convinced me many years ago 
that bishops and presbyters are the same order, and con- 
sequently have the same right to ordain." Yet he could 
also say : u I think the Church of England the best con- 
stituted church in the world." And everybody knows of 
the horror of great darkness that fell upon him when 
tidings reached him from Ameiica that Coke et al, were 
posing and masquerading as Bishops. 



204 Presbyteral Bishops 

ica, and gave him letters of ordination, un- 
der his hand and seal, in these words : 

" To all to whom these presents shall 
come, John Wesley, late Fellow of Lin- 
coln College in Oxford, Presbyter of the 
Church of England, sendeth greeting. 

" Whereas, Many of the people in the 
Southern Provinces of North America, who 
desire to continue under my care, and still 
adhere to the doctrine and discipline of 
the Church of England, are greatly dis- 
tressed for want of ministers to administer 
the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's 
supper, according to the usage of the same 
Church ; and whereas, there does not ap- 
pear to be any other way of supplying 
them with ministers, — 

"Know all men, that I, John Wesley, 
think myself to be providentially called at 
this time to set apart some persons for the 
work of the ministry in America. And, 
therefore, under the protection of Almighty 
God, and with a single eye to his glory, I 
have this day set apart as a superinten- 
dent, by the imposition of my hands, and 
prayer (being assisted by other ordained 
ministers), Thomas Coke, Doctor of Civil 



Presbyteral Bishops 205 

Law, a Presbyter of the Church of Eng- 
land, and a man whom I judge to be well 
qualified for that great work. And I do 
hereby recommend him to all whom it 
may concern, as a fit person to preside 
over the flock of Christ. In testimony 
whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and 
seal, this second day of September, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand seven hun- 
dred and eighty-four. 

"John Wesley." 

This was construed by Dr. Coke, in his 
ambition, as an ordination to a bishopric, 
and, on arriving in America, he proceeded 
to make a bishop out of Francis Asbury. 
But, after all, the " bishops " of the Meth- 
odist Church are not a distinct order of 
the clergy. They are only presbyters, and 
" amenable to the body of ministers and 
preachers, who may divest them of their 
office." * 

1 See chapter on Ordinations ? 



XVIII 
SCHISMATICAL BISHOPS 



44 Schism is a wilful breach of the outward unity of the 
Church." — John Henry Blunt. 



CHAPTEE XVIII 

SCHISMATICAL BISHOPS 

Eesident about the cities of Wasit and 
Basra, and in Chuzistan (the ancient Su- 
siana), on the eastern shore of the Tigris, 
are the 3Iandceans, who pretend to be de- 
scendants of the disciples of S. John the 
Baptist, whose hierarchy comprises the 
three orders of deacons, presbyters, and 
bishops, to whose ministry virgins are ad- 
mitted, and whose churches are only for 
the use of the clergy ; the laymen remain- 
ing in the vestibule. These Christians of 
S. John, though apparently dating back 
to primitive Christian antiquity, were not 
brought to the notice of the European 
world until the xvnth century, when the 
Carmelite missionary, Ignatius a Jesu, 
communicated information concerning 
them to the Latin Church, and, since his 
day, further knowledge of them has been 
14 



210 Sohismatical Bishops 

gained from Abraham Ecchellensis, Pietro 
della Valle, and others. When first dis- 
covered, they numbered about twenty- 
thousand families, and were located on the 
Euphrates and Tigris, south of Bagdad. 
They are mostly handicraftsmen. The 
bishops wear a golden seal-ring, bearing 
the inscription, sum jdvdr zwd — the name 
of Ydvdr Zwd, the victorious Hibil Zwd ; 
and the patriarch or pope, the Bish ammd, 
is both the civil and ecclesiastical au- 
thority. 

In the nd century Marcionite bish- 
ops were not uncommon, Marcion, their 
leader, having proposed in vain to reform 
the whole church by eliminating from her 
doctrines all Judaistic elements. The eth- 
ics of the system, which banned the theatre 
and circus, ornaments, meat, wine, and 
marriage, gained it numerous adherents in 
Koine, Italy, Egypt, Pontus, Arabia, Syria, 
Cyprus, and the Thebaid. Marcion's gos- 
pel, it has been decided by critics, is not a 
rescript of the original gospel, but a ver- 
sion marred by arbitrary changes intro- 
duced for dogmatical reasons. 



Schismatical Bishops 211 

Victor L, bishop of Eome (185-197), ex- 
communicated Theodotus, the tanner, the 
famous leader of the Monarchians (who held 
" the divinity of Christ was only a power 
communicated to him ") ; but the leather- 
dealer found a certain Natalius, an Italian, 
and a confessor, who, for a monthly salary 
of a hundred and seventy dinarii, w T as in- 
duced to become the bishop of the new 
church ; but " he was afterward, by visions 
of ' holy angels,' who whipped him while 
he was sleeping, forced back into the bosom 
of the great Church." * 

In the year 218, Callistus, a liberated 
slave, was raised to be episcopal supervisor 
of Rome, but, as he seemed to hold the 
heresy of Noetus (the leader of the modal- 
istic Monarchians) — that the person of the 
Father had assumed the human nature of 

1 Dynamic Monarchism was not so extinguished, how- 
ever, for in the following century, Paul of Samosata, bish- 
op of Antioch, was excommunicated by an Oriental coun- 
cil (268) for advocacy of its views. In Rome and Carthage 
it was modalistic Monarchism (that Christ was God Him- 
self incarnate, the Father who had assumed flesh, a mere 
modus of the Godhead) that threatened the doctrine of 
the Church, and led about the same time to the excom- 
munication of Hippolytus and Sabellius. 



212 Schismatical Bishops 

Christ, and was also under suspicion as 
favoring a mild ecclesiastical discipline, 
an opposition was organized, headed by 
the distinguished ecclesiastical writer, 
Hippolytus, " a presbyter conspicuous for 
learning, eloquence, zeal, and moral ear- 
nestness," whom his adherents elected 
counter - bishop ; but the breach was 
closed (235) when both parties united to 
choose another bishop. 

Novatian, a presbyter of the Church at 
Rome, eloquent, learned, but austere and 
uncompromising in his attitude toward the 
lapsed, having vainly combated the elec- 
tion of Cornelius, the candidate of the 
moderate party, to the apostolic see, sepa- 
rated himself (251) from his jurisdiction, 
erected a new society, of which he became 
the first bishop, and gave the name to a 
sect (Novatians), which, perpetuating itself 
for three centuries and taking root in al- 
most every community in the Eoman Em- 
pire, demanded the permanent exclusion 
from the Church of all defiled by gross sins 
after baptism, and insisted on the re-bap- 
tism of all who would enter into its mem- 
bership. 



Scliismatical Bishops 213 

About the same time the heady Cyprian, 
bishop of Carthage, having excommuni- 
cated a number of presbyters and confess- 
ors, under the lead of the deacon Feli- 
cissimus, for disregard of his episcopal 
utterances on the subject of the re-admis- 
sion of the lapsed, etc., a schism was ini- 
tiated in that city, and one Fortunatus elect- 
ed counter-bishop, although the good sense 
of all concerned speedily arrested the 
growth of the new sect. 

Paul, bishop of Samosata, and afterward 
patriarch of Antioch, excommunicated by 
the Oriental council of Antioch (268) for 
his Monarchian views — that the Son is an 
impersonal power, and can never become 
a concrete manifestation, became the nu- 
cleus of the Paulianists, but seems to have 
been unable to muster more than two hun- 
dred and sixty adherents. 

Meletius, bishop of Lycopolis, in The- 
bais, having offered incense to idols, or 
having arrogated to himself the power of 
ordaining within the jurisdiction of his 
metropolitan (Peter, bishop of Alexan- 
dria), was excommunicated and deposed 



214 Schismatical Bishops 

by an Egyptian synod (306), and there- 
upon became the chief pastor of the Mele- 
tlans, who spread over Egypt ; and, al- 
though the council of Nicaea (325) offered 
amnesty to all the bishops of this sect, 
and the succession to their respective sees 
in the event of the death of the regular 
bishop, Melefcius and many other of his 
schismatic colleagues persisted in perpet- 
uating the division, until, finally, they af- 
filiated with the party of the Arians. 

Csecilianus, the archdeacon, having been 
chosen (311) to succeed Mensurius as 
bishop of Carthage, the fanatical party in 
that city elected Majorinus, a lector, coun- 
ter-bishop, to represent their views of the 
honor of martyrdom ; and, this office de- 
volving (313) on Donatus the Great, the 
schism gradually spread over North Africa, 
until, at the time of their forced dispu- 
tation with Augustine, of Hippo, in Car- 
thage (411), no fewer than two hundred 
and seventy-nine Donatist bishops con- 
fronted the two hundred and eighty-six 
bishops of the Catholic Church there as- 
sembled ; and, although defeated, perse- 
cuted, proscribed, banished, and deprived 



Schismatical Bishops 215 

of all civil privileges, the sect survived un- 
til exterminated by the swords of the Sar- 
acens in the vnth century. About the 
close of the md century the Donaiists un- 
derwent subdivision, one offshoot taking 
the name of Rogatians, after Rogatus, 
bishop of Cartenna (370). In the year 400 
there were three rival bishops in Carthage. 
The heresy of Arianism, formally con- 
demned by the ecumenical council of Nice 
(325), generated a schism in the Church 
that gave rise to bloody conflicts and re- 
prisals, and led to the defection of Euse- 
bius, bishop of Nicomedia ; Eusebius, the 
historian, bishop of C^esarea ; Theodotius, 
bishop of Laodicea; Paulinus, bishop of 
Tyre ; Athanasius, bishop of Anazarbus ; 
Gregory, bishop of Berea ; Aetius, bishop 
of Lydda (Diospolis) ; Theonas, bishop of 
Marmarica ; Secundus, bishop of Ptole- 
mais, in Egypt ; Theognis, bishop of Nice ; 
Patrophilius, bishop of Scythopolitamius ; 
Theodore, bishop of Perinthus (Hera- 
clea) ; Basil, bishop of Ancyra ; Gregory, 
bishop of Alexandria ; Stephen, bishop 
of Antioch ; Narcissus, bishop of Nero- 
niades in Cilicia ; George, bishop of Lao- 



216 Schismatical Bishops 

dicea ; Acacius, bishop of Caesarea in Pal- 
estine ; Menophantis, bishop of Ephesus 
in Asia ; Ursacius, bishop of Singidunum 
in Moesia ; Valens, bishop of Mursa in 
Pannonia, etc., until " all the churches of 
the East, with the exception of that of 
Jerusalem," as Sozomen relates, "were in 
the hands of the Arians." And that was 
within fifty years of the session of the 
Nicene Council ! When the empire fell, 
Arianism took deep hold on the Burgun- 
dians, Goths, and Vandals, the conquerors 
of the old order, the founders of the new. 
But the Church finally displaced Arian- 
ism (747) in Lombardy, its last strong- 
hold, and so, at length, the schism, which 
had divided Christians ever since the 
Council of Sardica in Illyricum (347), came 
to an end. 

But sects are born of sectarianism. 
And soon the Arians of the rvth century 
began to dispute among themselves. The 
Eusebians (so Athanasius — oi irepl Evae- 
fiiov) divided into the Aetians, followers 
of Aetius, a deacon of Antioch, subse- 
quently a bishop-at-large ; the Acacians, 
followers of Acacius, bishop of Caesarea 



Sehisrnatical Bishojps 217 

(Eusebius's successor) ; the Eunomians, fol- 
lowers of Eunomius, bishop of Cyzicus (all 
of them strict Arians, genuine disciples of 
Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, later bishop 
of Constantinople, then (357-361) some fif- 
teen years dead); and into the 'Ojjbotovcnda- 
tl, ( H7)fj,(,dpeioi,, Semiariani (disciples of 
Eusebius, sometime bishop of Caesarea), 
led by Basil, bishop of Ancyra, and Eusta- 
thius, bishop of Sebaste ; and so great was 
the contention among them that sects were 
continually multiplied, and there was a 
bishop for almost every doctrinal distinc- 
tion. Two famous instances may be 
cited. 

Photinus, bishop of Sirmium, attempting 
to explain (343) the relationships existing 
in the Godhead, repeated the Sabellianism 
of his instructor, Marcellus, bishop of An- 
cyra, who had been deposed therefor by 
the Synod of Constantinople (336), and, 
enunciating that the Son and the Holy 
Ghost are two distinct emanations from the 
Divine Nature, was condemned by the Or- 
thodox at a council of Milan (347), by the 
Eusebians at the second council of Antioch 
(345), and finally deposed by them (351) 



218 Sohismatical Bishops 

at the first council of Sirmium. A party 
gathered around him, however, and the 
Photinians continued till the reign of Theo- 
dosius the younger. 

Macedonius, the Semi-Arian bishop of 
Constantinople, deposed at the instigation 
of the Eunomians (360) and sent into exile, 
by the Arian council of Constantinople, 
taught that the Holy Ghost was " a divine 
energy diffused throughout the universe, 
and not a person distinct from the Father 
and the Son " ; and only the action of the 
second ecumenical council (381) strangled 
the sect of the Macedonians before it had 
attained its maturity. 

Within the bosom of the Church unwise 
zeal against Arianism led to the further 
scission of the Body of Christ. 

Meletius of Sebaste, an Eusebian, as all 
thought, being elected by the Arians (360) 
bishop of Antioch, but immediately de- 
posed for his adhesion to the Nicene Con- 
fession, was next chosen bishop of the ho- 
moousian congregation of that city; but 
Paulinus, a presbyter, being consecrated 
counter-bishop by Lucifer, bishop of Ca- 
laris, on the ground that the old Nicenes 



Schismatical Bishops 219 

were afraid of even a converted Arian, a 
schism was initiated (the Westerns and 
Egyptians acknowledging Paulinus, the 
Oriental Nicenes rallying around Mele- 
tius, as the orthodox bishop of Antioch), 
which was not healed till 413, when Alex- 
ander, the Meletian bishop, voluntarily re- 
signed for the sake of harmony. 

On his return to Alexandria, Lucifer, dis- 
satisfied with the action of the council of 
Alexandria, assembled by Athanasius (362), 
which had commissioned him to restore 
peace to the Church at Antioch, separated 
and founded the sect of the Luciferitcs, en- 
tertaining rigid views as to ecclesiastical 
discipline, and lasting on into the vth cen- 
tury. 

Apollinaris the younger, bishop of Lao- 
dicea, a man of much learning and piety, 
allowed his attachment to Platonism to 
carry him away into a partial denial of the 
humanity of Christ, maintaining that the 
Logos in Christ supplied the place of the 
rational soul vov$ or ^v^V Xoyi/crj; but, his 
views finding no favor in the Church, he 
shortly withdrew himself from her com- 
munion (371), and gathered round him a 



220 Schismatical Bishojps 

party of adherents, who went by the names 
of Apollinaristce, Xwovaiaarai, Aifioipvrai. 

Priscillian, bishop of Abila, in Spain, a 
man distinguished by birth, fortune, and 
eloquence, becoming infected with Gnosti- 
cism (the Manichgeism of Africa), founded 
the sect of the Priscillianists, to which many 
Spanish bishops became converts, and a 
council at Saragossa (380) having excom- 
municated the sect, Ithacius, bishop of 
Sossuba, " a man abandoned to the most 
corrupt indolence, and without the least 
tincture of piety, audacious, talkative, and 
a slave to his belly," prevailed on Maxi- 
mus, the usurper, to apply the torture, and 
to put Priscillian and his adherents to 
death. 1 The Priscillianists were not so 
annihilated, however. Remnants contin- 
ued to exist till the vith century. 

Audius, an unsparing critic of the morals 
of the clergy in Mesopotamia, having in- 
curred their hostility, secured episcopal 
consecration and withdrew from the 
Church with his adherents, to Scythia, 

1 It is worthy of note that this is the first historical in- 
stance of a heretic delivered over to the civil power, or of 
heresy punished by death. Spain early created the In- 
quisition. 



Schismatical Bishops 221 

where he labored to disseminate the tenets 
of Anthropomorphism ; but his premature 
death (372) was a fatal blow to the sect, and 
the Audians became extinct early in the next 
century. 

The Eustathians, holding marriage in fa- 
natical contempt, rejecting the festivals of 
the Church, fasting on Sundays and feast- 
days, insisting on the surrender of all pos- 
sessions, and putting all women in male 
attire, derived their name from Eustathius, 
bishop of Sebaste, the founder of monach- 
ism in the Eastern provinces, who changed 
several times from Catholicism* to Arian- 
ism ; but the sect was early stifled (370) 
by the council of Gangra. 

Bonosus, bishop of Sardica, toward the 
close of this century, being excommuni- 
cated for teaching that Mary had other 
children than Jesus, founded a sect to per- 
petuate his view ; but they presently affil- 
iated with the Photinians in the East and 
the Adoptians in the "West. 

Sabbatius, a converted Jew, ordained 
priest by Marcian, the Novatian bishop of 
Constantinople, and compelled by the No- 
vatian Synod of Sangarum in Bithynia, to 



222 Schismatical Bishops 

renounce, on oath, his aspirations to the 
episcopate, induced some country bishops 
to consecrate him, and on his death in 
exile at Rhodes, to which place he had 
been banished for his intrigues and fal- 
sity, the Sabbatians honored him as a mar- 
tyr. 

The elevation of Arsacius (404) to the 
see of Constantinople, from which John 
Chrysostom had been banished by jeal- 
ousy, intrigue, and physical force, rent 
that Church in twain, thousands refusing 
to acknowledge the authority of the new 
archbishop, and persisting, despite impris- 
onment and torture, in worshipping as a 
separate body (under the name of Jolinites), 
until, in the year 438, the young emperor 
was induced to consent to the return of 
the bones of their beloved patriarch to the 
shores of the Bosphorus, where they were 
received by enthusiastic multitudes, and 
deposited near the altar of the church of 
the Apostles. 

Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople 
(hated by an unsuccessful rival, obnoxious 
to the ambitious patriarch of Alexandria, 



Schismatical Bishops 223 

suspected of Pelagianism by the bishop of 
Ronie), denying the propriety of calling 
Mary the mother of God, was actively as- 
sailed on this account by the malevolent 
and jealous Cyril, presently (431) excom- 
municated and deposed by the third ecu- 
menical council held at Ephesus, under 
the lead of this turbulent patriarch, and, 
defamed and maltreated, died (440) in 
great misery. But Nestorianism outlived 
its author, and, after generating an inter- 
nal schism, between Egypt and the East, 
as to the person of Christ, was introduced 
into Persia by Thomas Barsumas, bishop 
of Nisibis, seconded by Maanes, bishop of 
Ardascira; the Church there, at a council 
held in Seleucia (498), separating wholly 
from the Church in the Roman empire, 
and adopting the name of Chaldean Chris- 
tians ; and from Persia it spread through 
Egypt, Syria, Arabia, India (where its ad- 
herents were known as S. Thomas Chris- 
tians), and (636) to China ; and, wherever 
it went, it erected temples and schools and 
hospitals, and guarded and perpetuated 
the episcopate. 1 

1 u The great Nestorian pontiffs have, since the year 1559, 



224 Schismatical Bishoj>s 

The 3fonophy sites (a party holding that 
there was but one nature in Christ), head- 
ed (482) by Peter Fullo, patriarch of An- 
tioch, and Peter Mongus, patriarch of 
Alexandria, were afterward split up into 
Severians (holding that the body of Christ 
had been subject to decay) — the adherents 
of Severus, created (513) patriarch of An- 
tioch ; into Julianists (who denied it) — 
followers of Julian, bishop of Halicarnas- 
sus (519) ; into Caianists (likewise con- 
vinced that the body of Christ had been 
so interpenetrated by the divine nature 
from the moment of conception as to be 
ever incorruptible) — disciples of Cainus, 
bishop of Alexandria (the two latter sects 
also going by the names of Aphthartodo- 
cetee, Docetaa, Phantasiasts, etc., while the 
votaries of Severus were designated as 
Phthartolatrce, Ktistolatne, and Creatico- 
ls3) ; into Agnoefce (who imputed igno- 

bcen distinguished by the general denomination of Elias, 
and reside constantly in the city of Mosul. Their spirit- 
ual dominion is very extensive, takes in a great part of 
Asia, and comprehends also within its circuit the Arabian 
Nestorians ; as also the Christians of St. Thomas, who 
dwell along the coast of Malabar." — Mosheim's Ecclesias- 
tical History. 



Schismatical Bishops 225 

ranee to the one (divine or human) nature 
of Christ) — proselytes of Theodosius, bish- 
op of Alexandria ; into Cononists (insisting 
on three natures in the Deity, absolutely 
equal, and joined together by no common 
essence, and on the imperishableness of 
the human form) — spiritual children of 
Conon, bishop of Tarsus ; into Damianists 
(who distinguished the divine essence from 
the three persons, denying that each per- 
son was God, when considered in itself, 
and abstractly from the other two) — pu- 
pils of Damian, another bishop of Alexan- 
dria ; but the various surviving sects were 
finally fused by Jacob Baradseus, a monk 
of the monastery of Phasilta, near Nisibis, 
who, consecrated, after fifteen years' resi- 
dence in Constantinople, to the see of 
Nisibis, by Theodosius, the captive Mono- 
physite patriarch of Alexandria, went ev- 
erywhere, " from the boundary of Egypt 
to the banks of the Euphrates, preaching 
during the day, and often walking thirty 
or forty miles in the night, to escape his 
persecutors," consecrating "two patriarchs, 
twenty-seven bishops, and a hundred thou- 
sand priests and deacons," until, at his 
15 



226 Schismatical Bishops 

death (578), the community was firmly es- 
tablished in Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, 
Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, and elsewhere, 
all animosities extinguished, all factions 
reconciled, and the Jacobite Church (as it 
was called after its second founder and 
father) was recognized as the Church of 
the countries into which his indefatigable 
zeal had carried and extended it. 

But the council of Chalcedon (451) had 
forced the Monophysites (or Eutychians) 
from the Church. The orthodox patriarchs 
had been expelled from Antioch and Alex- 
andria. The bishop of Borne had renounced 
all communion with the patriarch of Con- 
stantinople ; and the Acoimetai (the monks 
of the Studion) were the only party in that 
city who continued in union with the Latin 
Church. The schism lasted until the aboli- 
tion of the Henoticon (519) by Justin I. ; 
but the 3Ionophy sites have remained sep- 
arate to this day, considering themselves 
banned by the decrees of Chalcedon (451). 
Those of them who submitted to the edict 
of the Emperor Marcian in favor of the de- 
cisions of that council were called Melchites 
(i.e., Boyalists) by their Jacobite brethren, 



Schismatical Bishops 227 

and their spiritual chief is styled the Patri- 
arch of Antioch, and dwells at Damascus. - 
The recognition by the bishops of Eome 
(Vigilius and Pelagius) of the authority of 
the second council of Constantinople (the 
fifth ecumenical), held 553, and frequented 
by only one hundred and fifty bishops, by 
which the "Three Chapters'' were con- 
demned, led to the separation from the 
Latin communion of the churches of Nor- 
thern Italy — Aquileja, Milan, etc. ; nor was 
the schism healed till the accession of 
Gregory the Great. 

In the vnth century a fresh attempt to 
bring the Monophysites back to the Church 
of the Councils resulted in the formation 
of a new heretical sect, the Monothelites 
(who held the Monophysite view of one 
volition, the human will of Christ being 
absorbed in his divine will), whose doctrinal 
founder was Theodore, bishop of Pharan, 
in Arabia, and whose advocacy led to the 
excommunication (646) of Paul, the patri- 
arch of Constantinople, by Theodore, bishop 
of Rome, and to the third council of Con- 
stantinople (680), in which the doctrine was 



228 Schismatical Bishops 

condemned as a heresy, and all 3fonothelites 
anathematized. But the sect found refuge 
among the Mardaites of Mt. Lebanon, whose 
abbot, John Maro (d. 701), formerly a monk 
in the famous convent of S. Maro, on the 
Orontes, they chose for their first bishop, 
and after whom they are called Maronites. 
In the year 1182, renouncing the doctrine 
of one will in Christ, they were admitted 
to the communion of the Latin Church, al- 
though their married men may become 
priests, but no priest may marry after he 
is in orders ; and their present number is 
about 100,000. Their patriarch is always 
called Peter. 

Macarius IV., patriarch of Antioch, who 
was present at the sixth ecumenical council 
(680), was a Monothelite, and the leader of 
a sect known as Macarians. 

About the middle of the vmth century, 
while Boniface was establishing the insti- 
tutions of Christianity in Germany, Adal- 
bert, a Gaul, vaulted into the episcopate, 
without the knowledge of the archbishop, 
headed an ecclesiastical party among the 
eastern Franks, and forged a letter to the 



Schismatical Bishojps 229 

human race purporting to have been written 
by Jesus Christ, and to have been carried 
from heaven by Michael, the archangel. 
Happily, the apostle of Germany had in- 
fluence enough at Eome to secure the con- 
demnation of this schismatic and impious 
prelate, which was effected by a council 
held at Eome, 748, when he was committed 
to prison, where he seems to have ended 
his days. 

The Adoptionisis, who held that, accord- 
ing to his human nature, Christ was only 
adopted by God {films adoptivus), found a 
bishop to lead them and enforce their view 
in the person of Felix, bishop of Urgel, in 
the Pyrenees, who defended the tenet at 
the synod of Eegensburg (792) in the pres- 
ence of Charlemagne. Condemned, and 
imprisoned in Rome by Adrian I., he re- 
canted, and, when released, repudiated the 
orthodox confession as made under com- 
pulsion, and fled into the country of the 
Moors. In 798 he wrote a book, and sent 
it to Alcuin and other learned men. The 
next year he was formally condemned by 
Leo III., at a council in Eome. And in 
the year 800, after a disputation between 



230 Schismatlcal Bishops 

Alcuin and himself at the council of Aix-la- 
Chapelle, he retracted, urged his adherents 
to return to the Church, and did what else 
he could to hasten the dissolution of the 
sect, which presently disappeared. 

The " Children of the Sun " (or the Tlion- 
trakians, from the village of Thontrake, 
where their society started), an Armenian 
sect, which originated in the ixth century 
with Sembat, a Paulician, and which em- 
phasized the necessity of personal Bible 
study and rejected the externals of religion, 
received a great impetus at the opening of 
the xith century (1002) in the accession of 
the metropolitan, Jacob of Harkh, who, 
travelling through the country, preaching 
repentance and self-repudiation, and suc- 
ceeding in the conversion of numbers of 
clergymen and others, aroused the jealousy 
and indignation of the Catholics of the 
Armenian Church, by whom he was speed- 
ily banned and killed, although the sect 
maintained its existence a while longer. 

In Bulgaria, early in the xiith century, 
the Bogomiles (who held to two Sons of 



Schismatical Bishops 231 

God, Satanael and Christ) assumed an at- 
titude of direct opposition to the Church, 
and, boasting of a hierarchy presided over 
by a " pope," were not even suppressed by 
the death (1116) of their leader Basil, whom 
the emperor unmasked by treachery, and 
for which Jael-like deed Anna Comnena, the 
pious daughter of Alexius, denominated her 
father TpccrfcaiBeKarov diroaroXov. In the 
year 1143, according to Giesler, two Cappa- 
docian bishops, Clemens andLeontius, were 
deposed as Bogomili, by a council at Con- 
stantinople. 

About the middle of this century we read 
of one Marcus, bishop of the Cathari * (doc- 
trinally and institutionally connected with 
the Bogomili) — a little later denominated 
Albigenses, or those condemned (1176) by 
the council of Albi — under whom (1150) 
they were differentiated into Albanensians 
(from the place where their spiritual chief 
resided) and Concoresensians (from Coriza 
in Dalmatia) ; the former (holding to the 
doctrine of two eternal beings) subdividing 
into the sect whose leader was Belasmansa, 

1 Giesler's Ecclesiastical History ; Kurtz's Church His- 
tory, in loco. 



232 Schismatical Bishops 

bishop at Verona, and into the disciples of 
John de Lugio, bishop at Bergamo ; the 
latter — the Concoresensians (contending for 
one eternal principle) — subdividing into 
the congregation of Baioli (the capital town 
of the province), whose bishop's name is 
not clearly made out (to which congrega- 
tion or party the Albigenses settled in 
France belonged), and into the church of 
Concorezzo, whose bishop (1180-1200) was 
one Nazarius. In the year 1167, one 
Nicetas was bishop of the Cathari at Con- 
stantinople; and he it was who went to 
Lombardy, shortly after the schism under 
Marcus, to confirm the sect in the knowl- 
edge of ancient dualism ; and a little later 
Oatharian congregations, organized into 
dioceses, existed in Florence (where Philip 
Paternon [1228] was the Catharian bishop), 
Milan, Calabria, Sicily, and even in the 
States of the Church. 

At the close of the xiith century the Wal- 
densians (called also in various places and 
at divers times Apostolicians, Arnaldists, 
Consolati, Boni homines, Leonista, Saba- 
tati, Perfecti, Ul tramontanes, Vaudois, etc.), 



Schismatical Bishops 233 

excommunicated by the Roman Church at 
the council at Verona under Lucius III. 
(1183), organized an ecclesiastical hierarchy 
among themselves, under the presidency 
of "bishops," originally ordained by Peter 
Waldo, their founder, himself only a citi- 
zen of Lyons ; and from these old Walden- 
sian "bishops," themselves without the 
apostolical succession, the "bishops" of 
the Bohemian Brothers and the Herrn- 
huters are descended. 

Arsenius, the patriarch of Constanti- 
nople, having excommunicated the regent, 
Michael Palseologus, for putting out the 
eyes of the infant prince, with the intent 
of incapacitating him from reigning, and 
being in turn himself deposed and ban- 
ished (1262), his adherents refused to ac- 
knowledge Joseph as his successor in the 
see, and separated from the State Church ; 
nor would the Arsenians return to its com- 
munion until the bones of their founcter 
had been solemnly interred in the church 
of S. Sophia (1312) by the patriarch Ni- 
phon, and all his old clerical opponents had 
been suspended for forty days. 

About this time (1250), according to 



234 Sohismatical Bishops 

Matthew Paris, the bishop of Porto wrote 
to the archbishop of Kouen that the Albi- 
genses had set up one Bartholomew for 
their anti-pope, that he had consecrated 
several bishops and, residing first in Bul- 
garia, Croatia, and Dalmatia, had finally 
settled in the neighborhood of Toulouse. 

In the next century a schism was caused 
in the Greek Church by the attempt to de- 
fine the nature of the light seen on the 
Mount of Transfiguration — the monks of 
Mount Athos, headed by Gregory Palamas, 
archbishop of Thessalonica, insisting that 
God had then favored His three servants 
with that eternal light, in which He is ever 
encircled, which is distinct from His nat- 
ure and essence ; and Barlaam, afterward 
bishop of Gieraece, contending for the doc- 
trine of the oneness of the attributes and 
essence of God. The Barlaamites were 
finally routed when, after ten years' dis- 
sension (1341-1351), a council held at Con- 
stantinople decided in favor of the Pala- 
mites and enacted such severe decrees 
against the believers in the one light only 
that Barlaam fled to Italy and joined the 



Schismatical Bishops 235 

Latin Church. And so ended the Hesy- 
cliastic (Quietist) controversy. 

In the year 1318 the bishop of Eome 
(John XXIII.) initiated a schism in the 
Armenian Church (a church already cen- 
turies old, with a long and regular succes- 
sion of bishops), by sending thither a Do- 
minican monk with the title and authority 
of an archbishop, whose see, which has 
been fixed at Naxivan, " still remains in 
the hands of the Dominicans, who alone 
are admitted to the ghostly dignity." * 

The bishop of Eome also divided the 
Armenian Church in Poland by the intru- 
sion of a Latin prelate into Lemberg. 

Before the close of this century Eome 
also established a schismatic congregation 
in Kiova — ruled by its own metropolitan 
and opposed to the Eussian bishops there 
resident. 2 

1 In 1593, one Zerapion, a wealthy man and a proselyte 
to Rome, obtained the title and dignity of patriarch, 
41 though there were already two patriarchs at the head of 
the Armenian Church. He did not, however, enjoy this 
dignity long; for, soon after his promotion, he was sent 
into exile by the Persian monarch, at the desire of those 
Armenians who adhered to the ecclesiastical discipline of 
their ancestors." 

2 In the year 1596 those who adhered to the Roman 



236 Schismatical Bishops 

In the xvith century, Julius III., 
bishop of Rome, consecrated (1553) one 
Sulaka patriarch of the Chaldeans, to 
whom he gave the name of John (although, 
since 1560, the other bishops connected 
with the schismatic party have been known 
as Simeon, with their residence in the city 
of Ormia, among the mountains of Persia) ; 
the native Nestorians elevating Simeon 
Barmana to the same patriarchate, whose 
successors, since the year 1559, have borne 
the name of Elias, with their see in Mosul, 
their jurisdiction including a great part of 
Asia, the Arabian Nestorians, and the 
Christians of S. Thomas, who dwell along 
the coast of Malabar. 

It was in this same century that Don 
Alexis de Menezes, the schismatic (Latin) 
bishop of Goa, invited the Jesuits to assist 
him in compelling the Christians of S. 
Thomas to accept the yoke of Rome ; and 
the horrors of that struggle are pilloried in 
the index expurgatorius of all right-minded 
Romanists. 

communion were called The United ; the title Non-united 
being given to all who preferred to remain under the 
jurisdiction of the ancient and original patriarchate of 
Constantinople. 



Schismatical Bishops 237 

It is not easy to say which is the schis- 
matic bishop in Syria — whether the spirit- 
ual chief of the Melchites, the prelate who 
oversees the Church of the Monopliy sites, 
the papal vicar who assumes jurisdiction of 
the Maronites, or the titular bishop in par- 
tibus (created in Eome) — all of whom claim 
the title and dignity of patriarch of Anti- 
och. Even the Maronites, who were ad- 
mitted to the communion of Rome in the 
xnth century, have not been consistently 
loyal to the Church of their adoption, for 
it is on record that " a large body of them 
joined the Waldenses, and another contin- 
gent — six hundred in number, with a bish- 
op and several ecclesiastics at their head — 
fled into Corsica, and implored the protec- 
tion of the republic of Genoa against the 
violence of the Inquisitors." 

It was in this century (1569) that Pius 
V., bishop of Eome, issued the bull which, 
excommunicating the queen of England, 
and pretending to free her subjects from 
their allegiance to her, initiated the schism 
which led to the separation of thousands 
from the National Church, and, eventually, 
to the establishment of an alien and schis- 



238 Schismatical Bishops 

matic ecclesiastical hierarchy in the king- 
dom. 

The year 1626 witnessed the rise of an- 
other schism, for which the bishop of 
Rome was responsible, in the intrusion of 
Alphonso Mendez, a Portuguese mission- 
ary, into the patriarchate of the old Abys- 
sinian Church ; but, happily, his unwisdom 
and insolence were so marked that, in the 
year 1634, he and his colleagues were ex- 
pelled from the territories of Ethiopia. 

In the same century one Andrew Achi- 
gian, having obtained from the bishop of 
Some the title and dignity of patriarch, as- 
sumed the name of Ignatius XXIV. (as if 
he had been a lineal descendant of Igna- 
tius, bishop of Antioch in the 1st century, 
and of the lawful patriarchs of Antioch), 
and lorded it over the Monophy sites of 
Asia. After him there came, too, another 
Latin usurper, who entitled himself Igna- 
tius XXV. ; but the rightful successor of 
Ignatius I. had influence enough at court 
to secure the deposition and banishment of 
the new pretender, when the separatists 
returned to the Church. 



ScMsmatical Bishops 239 

About the same time the bishop of 
Eome intruded a schismatic prelate into 
the indigent Nestorian Church, and the 
prelates of this insignificant flock, whose 
ecclesiastical centre is fixed in the city of 
Diarbek (Amida), assume, in turn, the de- 
nomination of Joseph. 

Toward the close of this century the 
bishop of Rome established Italian " Mis- 
sions " in England, Scotland, and Ireland, 
which continue to this day, and perpetu- 
ate the schism initiated (1569) by Pius V. 1 

The separation of the six Nonjuring 
prelates from the Church of England, on 
the accession of "William and Mary, led to 
a schism that involved twenty-seven bish- 
ops, from first to last, and lapped over on 
the xixth century. 2 

It is related by Skinner, in his Annals, 
that when, in 1788, the Church of Scotland 
ceased to be a Nonjuring Church, one 
Brown, dissatisfied with the action of the 
bishops in submitting to the " Government 
of the kingdom as vested in the person of 

1 See chapters on Roman Titulars in England, Roman 
Titulars in Scotland, and Roman Titulars in Ireland. 

2 See chapter on The English Nonjurors. 



240 Schismatical Bishops 

his Majesty, King George III.," formed a 
party, and going to Bishop Eose, of Dum- 
blane, then in his dotage, persuaded him 
to elevate him to the episcopal order. 
Questioned on the subject, the aged prel- 
ate, not knowing what he had done, made 
answer : " My sister may have done it, but 
not I." The schism lasted until the disaf- 
fected were removed by death. 1 

Only Lomenie de Brienne, archbishop 
of Sens ; Talleyrand, bishop of Autun ; 
Jarente, bishop of Orleans ; and Savines, 
bishop of Viviers, took the oath, and ac- 
cepted the Civil Constitution of the Clergy 
proposed by the French revolutionists of 
1790 ; the remaining prelates — one hun- 
dred and twenty-seven in all — protested 
and suffered. Thenceforth, there were 
two churches in France. Gobel, bishop 
of Lydda, was chosen the Constitutional 
Metropolitan of Paris, and distinguished 
himself as the eulogist of his patron Mira- 
beau, whom he proclaimed the father of 
the neio Church. A little later, at the age 
of seventy, he abjured the Christian relig- 
ion, sacrificing to the Goddess of Beason 

1 See chapter on The Scottish Nonjurors. 



Schismatical Bishops 241 

in his own cathedral church ; and, in 1794, 
he was arrested, condemned, and executed 
as an atheist. Expilly, a clerical deputy, 
was elected bishop of Quimper, and conse- 
crated in Paris, with Marolle, another 
bishop-elect, by Talleyrand, whose " am- 
bition far surpassed the ecclesiastical 
sphere." Gregory, Claude le Coz, Lamour- 
ette, and Moses were elected to other va- 
cated sees. And at last it came to pass 
that the Constitutional Church was more 
in favor with the people than the ancient 
Roman Church that had been superseded ; 
and but for the Concordat, between the 
First Consul and Pius YXL, signed July 
15, 1801, in which it is declared that "the 
Apostolical Eoman Catholic religion is the 
religion of the great majority of the 
French," etc., "the new church" had 
never, perhaps, been put to confusion. 



Only Infallibility can differentiate be- 
tween the popes and antipopes who have 
a _ . . from time to time divided the 

» c nisms m 

the Roman Church of Rome, and claimed 
simultaneously the allegiance 
of the Christian world. 
10 



242 Schismatical Bishops 

Which of the three co-existing popes — 
Gregory XII. (1406-1415), who held his 
court at Friuli; Benedict XIII. (1394- 
1424), the Avignon pope, who held his 
court at Peniscola, in Spain; or John 
XXIII., the Eoman pope (1410-1415)— 
was the schismatic prelate? And when 
the council of Constance (1415-1418) de- 
posed them all — Benedict XIII., for per- 
jury, heresy, and schism ; and John 
XXIII., as "the Devil Incarnate," accord- 
ing to the talk of the day, charged with 
every conceivable crime, fifty -four accu- 
sations being preferred against him — and 
elected Cardinal Odo Colonna (Martin V.) 
to the see of Borne, and there were four 
bishops living consecrated to 8. Peter's 
chair, only one of whom submitted to the 
sentence of deprivation, — how many were 
in a state of schism ? 

When the council of Pisa (1409) de- 
posed Gregory XII. and Benedict XIII., 
as " perjured heretics and schismatics," 
each of whom, however, continued to 
pose as S. Peter's successor and to curse 
his rival to the lowest hell, and elect- 
ed Petrus Philargi (Alexander V.), and 



Schismatical Bishops 243 

there were three popes — which was the 
pope ? 

And what of the sacred triumvirate of 
the xith century : whether was Benedict 
IX. (1033-1048), twice driven from Borne, 
Sylvester III. (1044), or Gregory VI. 
(1044-46), guilty of the sin of schism? 

Nor is the problem easier when we at- 
tempt to decide between two simultaneous 
popes. 

When Eugenius IV. (1431-1447) and 
Felix V. (1439-1449) were contending for 
the obedience of the world, the former de- 
nounced the latter as " a hell-dog," " Anti- 
christ," " the golden calf," and " Mahom- 
et." 

In 1294 Boniface VIII. rescinded all 
the acts of Celestine, the hermit, after he 
had seized him and confined him to the 
Rock of Fumorn, where he died ten months 
later. 

In 1159 Alexander III. proclaimed his 
rival " a forerunner of Antichrist ; " and 
Victor IV. reciprocated, by denouncing 
Alexander as " the offspring of Belial, the 
spawn of hell." 

In 1130 Anacletus II. was elected by a 



244: Schismatical Bishops 

majority of the conclave in opposition to 
Innocent IL, who anathematized the new- 
made bishop as " a son of hell, who dared 
contest the kingdom of heaven with him." 
But presently this "son of hell" was the 
sole proprietor of the Pateimonium Petbi, 
for Innocent had fled to France. In due 
time it came to pass that Anacletus " went 
to his own place ; " and then Innocent re- 
turned, and was again The Infallible. 

In 1118 Gregory VIII. was elected in 
opposition to Gelasius II. The former 
was the schismatic, of course ? Nay, not so. 
Gregory, backed by the kaiser, was too 
much for Gelasius, the Italian bishop, who 
was compelled to flee. Gregory, then, be- 
ing in possession, was S. Peter's succes- 
sor ? Not at all. For the next pope (Ca- 
lixtus II.) set him on a mangy camel, 
dressed in a bloody sheep-skin, and had 
him dragged from one prison to another 
until his death. Had the emperor not de- 
serted him, he would, probably, have been 
canonized. 

Gregory VII. (Hildebrand) and Clement 
III. held possession of S. Peter's chair by 
turns. On the death of Gregory, Clement 



Sohismatical Bishops 245 

sat down thereon with Victor III., Urban 
II., and Paschal II. 

In the Hid century there was a schism 
between Calixtus I. and Hippolytus ; and, 
later, another between Cornelius and No- 
vatian. 

In the ivth century there was a schism 
between Liberius and Felix; and, later, 
another between Damasus and Ursinus. 

In the vth century there was a schism 
between Boniface I. and Eulalius; and, 
later, another between Symmachus and 
Laurentius. 

In the yith century there was a schism 
between Boniface II. and Dioscorus ; and, 
later, another between Sylverius and Yi- 
gilius. 

In the viith century there was a schism 
between Petrus and Theodoras, and John 
V.; and, later, another between Paschal and 
Theodoras, elected in opposition to Sergius. 

In the vmth century there was a schism 
between Theophylactus and Paul ; and, 
later, another between Philip, Stephen 
III., and Constantinus ; the latter of whom 
was deposed by Stephen, shut up in a 
monastery, and his eyes put out. 



246 Schismatical Bishops 

In the ixth century there was a schism 
between Eugenius II. and Zizimus; an- 
other, later, between Benedict III. and 
Anastasius ; another, yet later, between For- 
mosus and Sergius ; and a fourth (according 
to one authority) between Stephen VII., 
John IX., Eonianus I., and Theodoras II. 

In the xth century there was a schism 
between Leo V. and Christophorus, who 
deposed and imprisoned his rival; an- 
other, later, between John XII. and Leo 
VIII.; and a third between Benedict VI., 
John XIV., and Boniface VII., the latter 
of whom began his reign by having Bene- 
dict VI. strangled in the castle of S. An- 
gelo, and concluded it by the poisoning of 
John XIV. in the same stronghold. 

In the xith century there was a schism 
between Gregory V., Calabritanus John 
XVL, and Sylvester II.; another, later, 
between Gregory and Benedict VIII.; a 
third between Sylvester III., Benedict IX., 
and Gregory VI.; a fourth between Bene- 
dict X. and Stephen IX.; a fifth between 
Alexander II. and Honorius II. (Cadalus) ; 
and a sixth between Gregory VII. (Hilde- 
brand) and Clement III. (Wibertus). 



Schismatical Bishops 247 

In the xnth century there was a schism 
between Paschal II., Theodoricus, Alber- 
tus, and Maginulfus (Sylvester IV.); an- 
other, later, between Gelasius II. and 
Gregory VIII. (Burdinus); a third be- 
tween Calixtus II. and Celestine (Theo- 
baldus Buccapecus) ; a fourth between In- 
nocent II., Anacletus, and Victor IV. 
(Gregory) ; a fifth between Alexander III., 
Victor IV. (Octavianus), Paschal III. 
(Guido Cremensis), Calixtus III. (Johannes 
de Struma), and Innocent III. (Landus 
Titinus). 

In the xivth century there was a schism 
between Nicholas V. and John XXII.; and 
the great schism of the West, which lasted 
until the year 1429, dates from the year 
1378, during which time there was a pope 
at Rome, another at Avignon, and often 
others elsewhere. 

In the xvth century, a few years after 
the reunion of the several sections of the 
Roman Church, another schism was ini- 
tiated by the election, by the council of 
Basle (1439), of Amadeus, first duke of Sa- 
voy (Felix V.), in opposition to Eugenius 
IV., who, however, triumphed in the issue. 



XIX 
OEDINATIONS? 



" Quid f acit, excepta ordinatione, episcopus, quod pres- 
byter non faciat." — Jerome, 



CHAPTEE XIX 

OKDINATIONS ? 

Every student of ecclesiastical history of 

those times is aware that on the outbreak 

Presbyteral of a schism in Carthage, con- 

Ordmation. se q Uen t on the appointment 

(248) of Cyprian, scarcely more than a 
neophyte, to the bishopric of that city, 
Novatus, a presbyter, the leader of the 
party, advanced one Felicissimus, a man of 
wealth, to the office of a deacon, who, event- 
ually, became the Magnus Apollo of the 
opposition ; and, though excommunicated 
(251), together with the five malcontent 
presbyters, by a council of North African 
bishops, it does not appear that he was de- 
posed. Indeed, Cyprian's protest is curi- 
ous in the omission of any reference to the 
invalidity of the ordination : Felicissimus 
suum diaconum nee permittente me sciente 
sua factione et ambitione constituit. It was 
thus he wrote to Cornelius, bishop of Eome 



252 Ordinations ? 

(Ep. xlviii.) : " He it is who, without my 
leave or knowledge, of his own factiousness 
and ambition, created his attendant Feli- 
cissimus a deacon." 

At the time of the Arian controversy in 
Alexandria, Alexander being archbishop, 
Colluthus, one of the city presbyters, plead- 
ing the need of the times (as Wesley did 
just fourteen hundred and sixty years later), 
assumed the functions of a bishop, and pro- 
ceeded to ordain presbyters and deacons. 
Among them was one, Ischyras, of whom 
Alexander of Alexandria wrote to Alexan- 
der of Constantinople 1 and concerning 
whom Athanasius has somewhat to say in 
one of his Apologies. This man's case 
came before a synod held at Alexandria, 
and he was incontinently deposed, the ar- 
gument taking this form : " How came 
Ischyras to be a priest? Who ordained 
him? Was it Colluthus? Yes, matter 
of fact stands thus. Well, but Colluthus 
being never any more than a priest, all his 
ordinations have been declared null; and 
those promoted by him have been pro- 
nounced laymen, and treated as such." 

1 Theodoret : Ecclesiastical History, i. , 4. 



Ordinations? 253 

Joseph Bingham, the ecclesiastical ar- 
chaeologist, calls attention to those presby- 
ters who were divested of their rank and 
reduced to the status of the laity by the 
council of Sardica (347), because Euthy- 
chianus and Musoeus, who ordained them, 
were not bishops at all, only presbyters. 

Often quoted, too, is the fact that Aerius, 
the director of one of the earliest Chris- 
tian hospitals, in Sebaste, Pontus, and a 
presbyter, was reckoned among the here- 
tics of his age, because he was wont to as- 
sume that he had authority to impose hands 
in ordination; and, when he separated 
(360) from the Church, the Aerians were 
well supplied with priests and deacons of 
his own creation. 

The second council of Constantinople 
(381), convoked by order of the emperor, 
Theodosius, attended by one hundred 
and fifty bishops, although the signatures 
amount to no more than one hundred and 
forty-two, quickly proceeded to declare 
that Maximus, The Cynic, had not been 
made bishop in a regular or lawful way, 
that he was a usurper of the see of Con- 
stantinople, and that all Ms ordinations were 



254 Ordinations ? 

null and void : a decision tantamount to a 
decree that orders are not valid unless re- 
ceived from a bishop. 

The second council of Seville, held in the 
chapter house of the Jerusalem Church at 
Seville, on the 13th of November, 618 (or 
619), which was attended by eight bishops 
of the province of Betica and the clergy of 
the city ; two laymen — the governor of the 
province and the chancellor — being al- 
lowed seats ; Isidore, the archbishop pre- 
siding, — was very severe on presbyteral 
interposition, ordering (canon v.) the de- 
position of a presbyter and two deacons, be- 
cause a priest present, owing to the blind- 
ness of the bishop who ordained them, had 
pronounced the words of benediction. 

In monasteries on the continent the pres- 
byter-abbot seems to have had the power 
of ordination. At least there is good au- 
thority 1 for asserting that in the Rule of 
the Abbot Aurelian, a contemporary of 
Columbkille, it is thus written : And ivlien 
the abbot ivishes he has authority to ordain. 2 

1 Migne Patrol. Cursus, lxviii., 392. 

2 "Et quando abbas voluerit ordinandi habeat po testa- 
tern." 



Ordinations ? 255 

Richard Ledred, bishop of Ossory, chan- 
cellor of the University of Oxford, then 
dean of Lichfield, and (1347) consecrated 
to the see of Armagh, primate, is on record 1 
as saying : If all bishops were dead at one 
and the same time, the minor priests would 
be able as bishops to ordain and even to con- 
secrate. 2 

"Was Thomas Lancaster, bishop-elect of 
Armagh three hundred years later, cogni- 
zant of this dictum, and did he think that 
episcopacy had ran out that, months be- 
fore his consecration to the see to which 
he had been promoted by Queen Eliza- 
beth, he went around ordering deacons 
and priests? Very curious that letter 3 
from Bishop Jewell to Archbishop Parker 
on the subject ! Stranger still his omis- 
sion to animadvert upon the orders thus 
received. 

1 O'Conor : Columbanus ad Hibernos, No. VII., Intro- 
ductory Letter XXVI. 

2 "Si omnes episcopi simul essent defuncti, sacerdotes 
minores possent episcopos ordinane et etiam consecrare." 

So also Archbishop Usher, in his letter to Dr. Bernard. 
See Baxter's Life, p. 208. 

3 This letter is numbered xlv. in Canon Jelf 's edition 
of the bishop's works (vol. viii., p. 194). 



256 Ordinations ? 

Everybody knows that Dr. Coke, the 
clergyman of the Church of England 
whom Wesley ordained (1784) superin- 
tendent of the Methodists in America, ap- 
plied to Bishop White, of Pennsylvania, 
for the " re-ordination " of his preachers ; 
which thing he most assuredly would not 
have done had he, or Mr. Asbury, or Mr. 
Wesley been satisfied as to the validity of 
the orders transmitted or received. 1 

The famous Origen, who was ordained 
priest (circ. 228) at Csesarea by his friend 
invalid E is Alexander, bishop of Jerusa- 
copai Ordina- lem, and Theoctistus, bishop 
of Caesarea, was deposed (231) 
by a synod of Egyptian bishops and priests 
of Alexandria, at the instigation of his 
diocesan, Bishop Demetrius, who was in- 
censed at his receiving sacred orders in 
another jurisdiction ; and this case was, 
presumably, in the mind of the council of 
Nicsea in the passage of canon xvi., which 
decrees that "if any (bishop) shall dare 
surreptitiously to take and in his own 
church ordain a man belonging to another, 

1 See chapter on Presoyteral Bishops. 



Ordinations ? 257 

"without the consent of his own proper 
bishop, let the ordination be void." 

In the year 418, Amator, the only son 
of noble and wealthy parents, desirous of 
entering the holy estate of matrimony, was 
not a little amazed to hear the senile bish- 
op, whom he had requested to perform the 
ceremony, mumble, by mistake, the office 
for the ordination of a clerk, which he 
read to the very end, no one else the wiser. 
Before the marriage festivities were con- 
cluded, the aged prelate, good old Vale- 
rian, died ; and, when Helladius was chosen 
in his stead, the young couple hied to him 
with the story ; and he, when he had heard 
of the interpretation put upon the incident 
by Amator and his girlish bride, forthwith 
advanced the groom to be a deacon, and 
gave the veil to Martha. On the death of 
Helladius, the choice of the clergy and 
people fell on Amator, and he was num- 
bered with the apostles. 

Adamnan has this story to tell of the 
presbyter Findchan, one of the great Co- 
lumba's disciples (521-597), who, it ap- 
pears, had brought over with him from 
Ireland, in the clerical habit, one Aidus, 
17 



25S Ordinations ? 

surnamed The Black, of royal descent, a 
cruel and wicked man, and guilty, among 
other things, of the murder of Diermit, 
son of Kerboil, king of all Ireland. After 
a stay of some time in his monastery in 
Ethica, Findchan came to conceive a great 
affection for this freebooter, and desired 
to see him in the priesthood. A bishop 
was accordingly sent for ; but, on learning 
of the crimes of Aidus, he refused to lay 
his hands upon him, unless Findchan, too, 
would lay his right hand upon his head, 
and share the responsibility. "When the 
uncanonical ordination was completed, 
rumors of it soon reached the ears of 
Columba, who, seeking out the offenders, 
thundered out this judgment on them : 
" That right hand which Findchan, im- 
piously and against the law of the Church, 
has laid upon the head of this son of per- 
dition, shall speedily rot, and after much 
agony be buried in the earth before its 
owner. He shall himself survive for many 
years; but Aidus, thus unlawfully or- 
dained, shall return like a dog to his 
vomit ; he shall again be guilty of cruel 
murder, and at last, pierced with a lance, 



Ordinations f 259 

shall fall from a tree into the water, and 
perish. Such an end he deserved long 
before, who murdered the king of Ireland. " 
That this double prophecy was fulfilled, 
what reader of Irish history can doubt! 
Certainly Adamnan bears record that Find- 
chan lost his hand long before the worms 
got his body; and that Aidus, a priest 
only in name, took to wallowing in the mire 
once more, and, falling from the prow of a 
ship into a lake, pierced through with a 
lance, was drowned and troubled men no 
more. 

In the year 853, the council of Soissons, 
held in the monastery of S. Medard, under 
Hincmar of Eheims, composed of twenty- 
six bishops, from five provinces, and fa- 
vored with the occasional presence of the 
king, Charles the Bold, took occasion 
(canon i.) to impeach the validity of the 
ordinations performed by Ebbo, deposed 
from the archbishopric of Eheims, for tak- 
ing part in an uprising against the king, 
but shortly after, appointed bishop of 
Hildesheim by Lewis the German, and 
confirmed by the pope ; and, for thirteen 
years, the priests whom he had ordained, 



260 Ordinations ? 

after his transfer to the diocese of Hilde- 
sheim, which, canonically, he had no right 
to accept without the consent of his 
brother-bishops, were treated as laymen 
only. But in August, 866, another (the 
third) council was held at Soissons, by 
order of Charles, thirty-five bishops at- 
tending ; and then Ebbo's clerks were re- 
stored to the rank from which they had 
been degraded, and one of them, Vulgude, 
was that same year consecrated archbishop 
of Bourges. 

The city of Kief, the cradle of the Bus- 
sian Church, where (988) the whole popu- 
lation, by command of the king, Vladimir, 
descended into the Dnieper, while some 
Byzantine priests read aloud the baptismal 
formula from the cliffs near by, is the pos- 
sessor of a hand that once belonged to 
Clement of Borne ; and, in the year 1147, 
when Clement of Smolensk was elected 
bishop, in spite of the protest of the patri- 
arch of Constantinople, the council there 
and then assembled laid this dead hand 
upon his head; and thus lie was conse- 
crated ! 

As an indication of the temper of those 



Ordinations ? 261 

times, it may be worthy of note that dur- 
ing the latter half of the xvith century, 
the daughter of Henry VIII. and Anne 
Boleyn upon the throne, many English- 
men, not satisfied with episcopal ordina- 
tion, went beyond sea to receive orders 
from foreign presbyteries, and that among 
the number were some who had been raised 
to the office of a deacon by the imposition 
of the hands of a bishop. 1 

In 1709, the Eev. Mr. Greenshields, 2 
who was ordained by the bishop of Ross, 
and afterward held a curacy in Ireland, 
removing to Edinburgh, and venturing to 
use the English service there, cited by the 
Presbytery, and then by the magistrates, 
to appear before them, and give an account 
of his license and authority to exercise 
ministerial functions, was thrown into pris- 
on, for refusing to submit to the sentence 
of the Presbytery, and, on application to 
the Court of Session for liberation, was in- 
formed that no minister ordained by an 

1 Strype's Annals, vol. ii., p. 524. Neale's Puritans 
(Harpers, 1871), I. 114, 144, 152. 

2 Lawson : History of the Scottish Episcopal Church, II., 
196. Daniel De Foe : Preface to the History of the Un- 
ion, 1776, p. 19. 



262 Ordinations ? 

exauctorate (a bishop deprived of author- 
ity) had ordination according to the law 
which established Presbyterianism ! 

["Neither presbyter, deacon, nor any of the ecclesiasti- 
cal order shall be ordained without a charge, nor unless 
the person ordained is particularly ap- 

Locahs Ordi- pointed to a church in a city or a villaqe. 
natio : Ordi- x . . . J / \ 

nation without or to a maT ^V> or to a monastery. And 
a title. if any shall be ordained without a charge 

the Holy Synod decrees, to the reproach 
of the ordainer, that such an ordination shall be inop- 
erative, and sliall nowhere have effect.'''' — Council of 
Chalcedon (451), Canon vi.] 

The erudite Jerome, early a student at 
Rome of Greek philosophy and Latin lit- 
erature, baptized at the age of twenty, but 
a Ciceronian, rather than a Christian, in 
the realm of letters until awakened by a 
dream at the age of thirty-four, was or- 
dained a presbyter some five years later, 
(379), "with license to continue a monk 
and return to his monastery again." 

Paulinus, the richest man of his age, 
according to Augustine, consul, married, 
was made presbyter (394) at Barcelona, 
with the understanding that "he should 
not be confined to that church, but remain 
a priest at large." 



Ordinations ? 263 

Of Macedonius, a Syrian anchoret, it is 
related by Theodoret, that he was with- 
drawn from his cell in the desert, ordained 
a presbyter by Flavian, patriarch of Anti- 
och (381-404), and then allowed to go back 
to his favorite solitudes. 

The Chalcedonian canon was enacted to 
put a stop to such ordinations : titular 
clerks were to cease ; and all clerks were 
to have a title {titulus), or fixed source of 
income, that they might not be a burden 
on the Church, i.e., they were not to be 
ordained unless appointed to some partic- 
ular office or congregation. 

Among the Excerpta of Egbert, arch- 
bishop of York (750), is one (52), which 
reaffirms that no person shall be ordained 
absolutely, or without naming the place to 
which he is ordained. 1 Edwin Hatch 
notes that the canon of Chalcedon was re- 
enacted, occasion arising, in the Carolin- 
ian Capitularies (789), the Capit. Fran- 
cofurt (794), and elsewhere, about that 
time; and that the Pontificals of Egbert, 
Dunstan, Yatican ap. Muratori, Eodrad, 
Eouen, Eeims, Noyon, Eatold, and the 

1 Hart's Ecclesiastical Records. 



2 64 Ordinations ? 

Gelasian Sacramentary, required the ordi- 
nand to designate the particular church 
from which he was to derive his income. 

The Council of Placenza, held (1095) by 
Urban II., at which two hundred bishops 
attended, with four thousand other ecclesi- 
astics, and thirty thousand laymen, and 
whose first and third sessions were held in 
the open air, that all might participate, 
enacted the canon (xv.) : We decree that an 
ordination iviihout a title be accounted null. 1 

The national council of Westminster, 
held, in 1200, by Primate Walter, after 
due deliberation, formulated its views and 
decision in this canon (vi.) : " If a bishop 
shall ordain any man to be a deacon or a 
priest without a title, let him maintain him 
till he can provide for him in some churchy 

Five hundred and forty years later Dr. 
Sherlock, bishop of Salisbury, remarked 
in the House of Lords, occasion demand- 
ing : " According to the canons of the 
Church of England, the bishop is not to 
ordain any man without a title, that is, 
some place where he is to preach, and by 

1 Decernimus ut sine titulo facta ordinatio irrita habe- 
atur. 



Ordinations ? 265 

which he may support himself, of which 
he must exhibit to the bishop a certificate ; 
and, if a bishop ordains any man without 
such a certificate, he is obliged to main- 
tain him till he get him preferred to some 
ecclesiastical living." * 

Novatian, the Roman presbyter, conse- 
crated to the see of Eome (251), by three 

Re-ordina- Italian bishops, in opposition 
tlon - to Cornelius, naturally or- 

dained a great number of deacons and 
priests; and, as the Novatiani had spread 
into Egypt, Armenia, Pontus, Bithynia, 
Cilicia, Oappadocia, Syria, Arabia, and 
Mesopotamia, the great schism was one of 
the questions that came before the council 
of Nicsea (325) for consideration ; and it 
was decreed (canon viii.) that their clergy, 
on returning to the Church, should be 
ordained — (bare ^etpoOerovfiivov^ tovtovs 

fJL€V€CV OVTCO? €V T(p K\rjp(p. 

The case of Meletius, another schismatic, 
also came before these fathers ; and, after 
ordering that his clergy, on their return to 

1 Grub : Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, iv. , 39. 



266 Ordinations ? 

the Church, should l receive " a more sa- 
cred ordination," they conceded to him the 
"honorary rank of bishop " — the episcopal 
character without episcopal jurisdiction. 

As to the Paulianists — the adherents of 
Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch, de- 
posed (269) for heresy, they were to be 
re-baptized, on entering the Church, and 
their clergy to be re-ordained as well as 
re-baptized (canon xix.). 2 

The council also enacted a canon (xvi.) 
to the effect that a presbyter ordained 
without the consent of his lawful diocesan 
must be re-ordained by his own bishop to 
have the ecclesiastical right to minister. 

When some of the Arian clergy wished 
to return to the Catholic Church, it was 
enacted by a council (1 Aurel., 511) that 
they might be admitted to office cum im- 

1 In pursuance of this decree, as Bingham has made out, 
Theodore, Bishop of Oxyrinchus, re-ordained the Meletian 
presbyters on their return to the Church. And yet the 
African Church always allowed the ordination of the Do- 
natist clergy to stand ! 

2 Jacobson, in Herzog's Theological and Ecclesiastical 
Encyclopedia (Incapacity), says " it was repeatedly de- 
clared that if it was discovered that persons ordained had 
not been baptized (or properly baptized), they should be 
baptized, and then re-ordained. " 



Ordinations ? 267 

positce manus benedictione ; and a hundred 
years later, as Hatch goes on to say, clerks 
ordained (?) by Scotch or British bishops 
(a Scottorum vel Britonum episcopis), and 
those advanced to the priesthood by bish- 
ops without a diocese (episcopi ambulantes), 
were compelled to submit to a like cere- 
mony. 

The national council of Toledo, held on 
the 9th of December, 633, attended by 
sixty-six archbishops and bishops, under 
the presidency of Isidore of Seville, en- 
acted a canon (xxviii.), prescribing the 
ritual of re-ordination for those who had 
been unjustly degraded. 

Across the Channel, Theodore, arch- 
bishop of Canterbury (d. 690), required the 
holy and humble-minded Chad, late bishop 
of York, to submit to re-consecration on his 
appointment to the see of Lichfield, alleg- 
ing that two of the bishops concerned in 
elevating him to the episcopal order were 
" defiled with the heresy of shaving their 
whole heads and observing Easter on the 
w r rong day " ! A little later such re-conse- 
cration was made a canonical requirement. 1 

1 " Qui ordinati sunt Scottorum vol Britonnum epis- 



2G8 Ordinations ? 

Jeremy Collier quotes Gregory III., 
bishop of Eome (731-741), as laying it 
down for a rule tliat when it was ques- 
tionable whether the person who ordained 
a priest was a bishop or not, the person 
was to be re-ordained by the diocesan be- 
fore being admitted to any priestly func- 
tion. 

In the xith century, Leo IX., another 
bishop of Eome (1049-1054), ordained over 
again those who had been admitted to the 
priesthood by prelates who had obtained 
their sees by purchase. 1 

In the year 1610, at a consecration held 
in the chapel of London House, on Sun- 
Non-Episcopal day, the 21st day of October, 

Ordinations. the bishops of London, Ely, 

Rochester, and Worcester communicated 
the episcopal character to three Scotch 
Presbyterian ministers, whose names and 

copi, qui in Pascha vel tonsura Catholicae non sunt ordinati 
ecclesise, iterum a Catholico episcopo rnanus impositione 
confirmentur." 

1 The Rev. Edwin Hatch calls attention, in his article on 
Ordination, in Smith's Dictionary of Christian Antiq- 
uities, to a Galatian inscription of the year 416, which 
gives a record of one who was twice presbyter— dU yevonevos 
irpeo-jSyrepos. 



Ordinations ? 269 

compellations stand thus in the register : 
Mr. John Spotswood, minister and conci- 
onator, as the king's mandate speaks ; Mr. 
Gawen Hamilton, minister and conciona- 
tor ; Mr. Andrew Lamb, minister and con- 
cionator. These were also numbered 
among the " Tulchan * bishops " (without 
the succession and without consecration) 
that " were subject to the discipline of the 
Kirk " ; but of these orders no account was 
made ; and, though they were raised to the 
highest degree without passing through the 
intermediate orders of deacon and presby- 
ter, it was not because they had previously 
been " ministers in good standing" in an- 
other religious body, but because the epis- 
copal character could be given by one con- 
secration, as the primate, Dr. Bancroft, 
argued out of ancient ecclesiastical history, 
citing the cases of Ambrose, Nectarius, 
Eucherius, and others, who, from mere lay- 
men, were advanced at once into the chair 
of an apostle. 2 

In the year 1661, the Scottish succession 
having again run out, Thomas Sydserf , the 

1 See Chapter on Tulchan Bishops. 

2 See Chapter VI., in Bishops' Blue Book. 



270 Ordinatio n s ? 

sole surviving Scots bishop, having been 
translated to the see of Orkney — James 
Sharp, " execrated by the Presbyterians as 
their Judas, traitor, and betrayer," and 
Robert Leighton, the son of Alexander 
Leighton, the author of "Zion's Plea against 
Prelacy," having come to London for the 
purpose, were raised to the episcopal order 
by the bishops of London, "Worcester, Car- 
lisle, and Landaff, but not until they had dis- 
claimed the validity of their Presbyterian 
ordination, and had been privately admit- 
ted to the diaconate and priesthood. John 
Fairfoul and James Hamilton, consecrated 
bishops at the same time, had been or- 
dained by the Scottish bishops of the old 
succession, and as to them there was no 
question. Of these, " the Scottish Bishops 
of the Second Anglican Consecration," 
James Sharp was elevated to the archbish- 
opric of St. Andrews ; Andrew Fairfoul, 
to the archbishopric of Glasgow ; James 
Hamilton, to the bishopric of Galloway; 
and Robert Leighton, to the bishopric of 
Dunblane. 

Two years later, the death of David 
Mitchell, bishop of Aberdeen, created no 



Ordinations ? 271 

small vacancy in the newly restored Church. 
Even while a Presbyterian minister in Ed- 
inburgh, at the time (1638) the national 
covenant was imposed, he was a zealous 
supporter of the liturgy ; and, because " his 
ecclesiastical principles were those of Laud, 1 
and he had declined the jurisdiction of the 
assembly, and refused to give the pres- 
bytery of Edinburgh any other name than 
that of brethren of the exercise," etc., he 
was deprived by the famous Glasgow As- 
sembly of that same year ; and, obliged to 
flee from his own country, he took refuge 
in Holland, where he supported himself by 
his skill as a watchmaker. Appointed in 
1661 to the see of Aberdeen, he was con- 
secrated at St. Andrews, on Sunday the 
first of June, by the primate, Archbishop 
Sharp, and the bishops of Dunkeld and 
Moray (consecrated twenty-four days pre- 
viously) ; and of him it is recorded that he 
always " insisted on re-ordaining ministers 
who had received only Presbyterian ordina- 
tion," although the other prelates had no 
rule on the subject, but would re-ordain, if 

1 See his letter to Bishop Leslie, of Raphoe, under date 
March, 1638. 



272 Ordinations ? 

requested. 1 Indeed, it is not proven that 
the bishops nominate of Dunkeld (George 
Haliburton, minister at Perth), Moray 
(Murdoch Mackenzie, minister at Elgin), 
Ross (John Paterson, minister at Aber- 
deen), Caithness (Patrick Forbes, son of 
John Forbes, minister at Alford), Brechin 
(David Strachan, minister at Fettercairn), 
and The Isles (Eobert Wallace, minister at 
Barnwell in Ayrshire), who were conse- 
crated (May 7, 1661) by Archbishops Sharp 
and Fairf oul and Bishop Hamilton on their 
return from London, had in every case re- 
ceived episcopal ordination as deacons and 
priests ; but, if any of them had merely 
Presbyterian orders, there is no evidence 
that they were reordained. 2 

John Bramhall, chaplain to the arch- 
bishop of York (1623), bishop of London- 
derry (1634), an exile during the Revolu- 
tion, but made archbishop of Armagh (1661) 
after the Restoration, insisted on the re- 
ordination of all Presbyterian ministers 

1 Morer : Short Account of Scotland, pp. 59-64. Sym- 
son : Present State of Scotland, p. 241. Gordon : Re- 
formed Bishop, pp. 84, 161, 165. 

2 Grub : Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, vol. iii., p. 
199. 



Ordinations ? 273 

who would serve at the altars of the Church, 
but declared that he did not annul the min- 
ister's former orders (if he had any), nor 
determine their validity or invalidity ; much 
less did he condemn all the sacred orders 
of foreign churches, whom he left to their 
own Judge ; but that he only supplied what- 
ever was before wanting, as required by 
the canons of the Anglican Church ; and 
that he provided for the peace of the 
Church, that occasion of schism might be 
removed, and the consciences of the faith- 
ful satisfied, and that they might have no 
manner of doubt of his ordination, nor de- 
cline his presbyterial acts as invalid. 1 All 
of which the primate inserted in his " let- 
ters of orders." 

Jeremy Taylor, bishop of Down and 
Connor, would have done the same for the 
new order of ministers of his diocese, but 
they would none of him, nor would they 
so much as confer with him on the subject. 

Bishop Mant (d. 1848), in his "History 
of the Church of Ireland" (I. 453-8), tells 

1 Bishop Vesey : Life of Primate Bramhall. Bp. Mant : 
Hist, of the Ch. of Ireland, i., 623. Daniel Neal : Hist, of 
the Puritans, ii., 238. Nichols: Defence of the Ch. of 
England, In trod., p. 112. 
18 



274 Ordinations? 

of an ordination in the diocese of Down 
and Connor (his own two centuries later), 
recorded in the " Eegal Visitation Book " 
of the diocese (1633), in which Eobert 
Echlin, the ordinary, admitted one Eobert 
Blair (1623) to the orders of deacon and 
priest. All seems fair on the surface. 
But Blair, in a personal narrative, says 
that, having been invited by Lord Clane- 
boy, of Scotland, to settle in the parish 
of Bangor, County Down, he declined 
the offer because he " could not submit 
to the use of the English liturgy, nor 
to episcopal government." His lordship 
promised that he should have " free entry 
into the ministry ; " and the process is 
thus described by Blair : " The Viscount 
Claneboy, my noble patron, did, on my 
request, inform the bishop how opposite 
I was to Episcopalians and their liturgy, 
and had the influence to procure my ad- 
mission on easy and honorable terms. 
Yet, lest his lordship had not been plain 
enough, I declared my opinion fully to 
the bishop at our first meeting, and found 
him yielding beyond my expectation. The 
bishop said to me : ' I hear good of you, 



Ordinations t 275 

and will impose no conditions on yon ; I 
am old, and can teach you ceremonies, and 
you can teach me substance ; only I must 
ordain you, else neither I nor you can 
answer the law nor brook the land.' I 
answered him that his sole ordination did 
utterly contradict my principles : but he 
replied both wittily and submissively, 
1 "Whatever you account of episcopacy, yet 
I know you account a presbytery to have 
divine warrant ; will you not receive orders 
from Mr. Cunningham and the adjacent 
brethren, and let me come in among them 
in no other relation than a presbyter?' 
This I could not refuse, and so the matter 
was performed." One of the first acts of 
Blair was to rebuke his patron for kneel- 
ing at the Lord's Supper. Invited by 
Bishop Echlin to preach at the Lord 
Primate's triennial visitation of the diocese 
(1626), which was holden by his officials, 
Ussher being in England, Blair took oc- 
casion to show that Christ had instituted 
no bishops, alleging the testimony (1) of 
the Scriptures, (2) of the fathers, (3) of the 
moderate divines of the day. Four years 
later, by request of the same prelate, he 



276 Ordinations ? 

preached an assize sermon before the lords 
justices, who came annually to the north- 
ern circuit, in which he took occasion to 
speak of "the crafty bishop," and to at- 
tribute to the Lord whatever comfort and 
credit he enjoyed. In 1632, the bishop 
was compelled to depose him " for irregu- 
larities and lawlessness." 

The same records (" The Eegal Visitation 
Book") contain an account of the ordina- 
tion (1630), by Andrew Knox, bishop of 
Baphoe, of a certain John Livingston (or 
Liviestowne), who, "in consequence of his 
opposition to prelacy, was silenced by 
Spottiswoode, archbishop of St. Andrews, 
1627," but managed to get "free entry" 
into Ireland. In "An Historical Essay 
upon the Loyalty of the Presbyterians in 
Great Britain and Ireland, from the Bef- 
ormation to this present year 1713," there 
lies imbedded an abstract prepared by 
Livingstone himself, setting forth the man- 
ner of his ordination. And, according to 
his account, it was on this wise : " About 
August, 1630, I got letters from the Vis- 
count Clanniboy to come to Ireland, in 
reference to a call to Killenchy ; whither 



Ordinations ? 277 

I went, and got an unanimous call from 
the parish. And because it was needful 
I should be ordained to the ministry, and 
the bishop of Down, in whose diocese 
Killenchy was, being a timorous man, 
would require some engagement; there- 
fore my Lord Clanniboy sent some with 
me, and wrote to Mr. Andrew Knox, bish- 
op of Eaphoe : who, when I came and had 
delivered the letters from my Lord Clanni- 
boy, and from the Earl of Wigton, and 
some others, told me he knew my errand : 
that I came to him because I had scruples 
against episcopacy and ceremonies, accord- 
ing as Mr. Josias Welsh and some others 
had done before ; and that he thought his 
old age was prolonged for little other pur- 
pose but to do such offices ; that if I 
scrupled to call him 'my lord' he cared 
not much for it; all he would desire of 
me, because they got there but few ser- 
mons, was, that I would preach at Eamal- 
len the first Sabbath ; and that he would 
send Mr. Cunningham and two or three 
neighboring ministers to be present ; who 
after sermon should give me imposition of 
hands. But, although they performed the 



278 Ordinations ? 

work, he behoved to be present ; and al- 
though he durst not answer it to the State, 
he gave me the Book of Ordination ; and 
desired that anything I scrupled at I 
should draw a line over it in the margin, 
and that Mr. Cunningham should not read 
it. But I found that it had been so marked 
by some others before me, that I needed 
not to mark anything in it." Thus ended 
the interview; and, a little later, John 
Livingston was admitted to the priesthood 
of the Church, the bishop lending nothing 
but his presence to the ceremony, and not 
attempting to participate. 1 In 1632 he 
shared the fate of Blair, being thrust out 
of the Church for " irregularities and law- 
lessness." 

In 1667, the Presbyterians of England, 
aided by Sir Matthew Hale, Bishop Wil- 
kins, and others, proposed that, as a con- 
dition to union with the Church, the words 

1 According to the author of Loyalty of the Presbyte- 
rians, this practice was common then, " all those of the 
same persuasion who were ordained in Ireland between 
that time (1622) and the year 1642 being ordained after 
the same manner. " And he adds : " All of them enjoyed 
the Church and tithes, though they remained Presbyte- 
rians still and used not the Liturgy." See also Neal : His- 
tory of the Puritans (Harpers, 1871), vol. i., p. 261. 



Ordinations ? 279 

of ordination should be changed so as to 
read : " Take thou legal authority to preach 
the word of God and administer the sacra- 
ments in any congregation in England 
where thou shalt be lawfully appointed 
thereunto," the word "legal" being con- 
sidered a sufficient salvo for the intrinsic 
validity of the orders already received. 1 

In September, 1689, after the accession 
of William and Mary, a royal commission 
w r as issued, authorizing certain individuals 
to meet and consider matters connected 
with the Church ; and when the question 
of re-ordination w r as to be settled, the com- 
missioners decided that the hypotheti- 
cal form should be adopted, in the case 
of the Dissenters as in the case of uncer- 
tain baptism, in these words : " If thou 
art not already ordained, I ordain thee." 
This, it is said, would have satisfied many 
of the non-conformists. 2 And it is well 
known, as Lathbury remarks, that Tillot- 
son, Burnet, Tenison, and all the men of 

1 Abbey and Overton : The English Church in the Eigh- 
teenth Century, p. 170. Bishop Short : History of the 
Church of England, § 710 n. 

2 Lathbury : History of Convocation, p. 321. Bishop 
Short : History of the Church of England, § 710. 



280 Ordinations? 

that school, were willing to waive the ques- 
tion of Presbyterian orders by adopting 
this proposal. In such a case non-con- 
formist ministers would have been ad- 
mitted in the manner adopted by the 
ancient Church with those who had been 
ordained by heretics. But Overall, bishop 
of Norwich (1618), had anticipated this 
plan of comprehension in the case of De- 
laune, a French Protestant, whom he would 
have admitted to the ministry of the 
Church with these words : " If thou art not 
ordained before, etc." 

According to the bishop of Sodor and 
Man (Thomas Vowler Short), Ussher and 
Davenant alone, among the bishops, al- 
lowed of the validity of the ordination of 
foreign Protestant churches. 1 

But the question is one of extreme deli- 
cacy and difficulty. 

It seems certain that "William Whitting- 
ham, one of the Marian exiles, and minis- 
ter to the English refugees at Geneva, was 
preferred, on his return home (1563), to 
the deanery of Durham, where he re- 
mained some fifteen years or more, when 

1 History of the Church of England, § 710 n. 



Ordinat ions ? 281 

proceedings were instituted (1579) against 
him for not being ordained according to 
the rites of the Church of England. 1 

Thomas Cartwright, B.D., was certainly 
Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity in 
Cambridge in the year 1570 (Matthew 
Parker, primate), one of those who, having 
received deacon's orders in the Church of 
England, chose to be made full ministers 
by the presbyteries of foreign churches, 
and urgent, in public, for the reduction of 
the ministers of the Church to two orders 
— bishops and deacons. 2 The statute 13 
Elizabeth, cap. xii., gave liberty to minis- 
ters of the Scotch and other foreign 
churches to exercise their ministry in Eng- 
land without re-ordination. 

In 1578, Walter Travers, 3 who "com- 
menced bachelor of divinity in Cam- 
bridge," as delicious old Fuller observes, 

1 Daniel Neal : History of the Puritans (Harpers, 1871), 
vol. i., p. 145. 

2 Strype's Annals, vol. i., pp. 628, 629. Life of Parker, 
p. 312. 

3 Daniel Neal : History of the Puritans (Harpers, 1871), 
vol. i. , p. 144. Bishop Short : History of the Church of 
England, § 454. Thomas Fuller : Church History of 
Britain, Book IX. Appeal of Injured Innocence, p. 518. 
Sec also Izaac Walton : The Life of Mr. Richard Hooker. 



282 Ordinations? 

went beyond the sea, was ordained min- 
ister by the presbytery at Antwerp, and, 
without having other ordination, became 
afternoon preacher (lecturer) in the Tem- 
ple, was proffered the divinity professor- 
ship in the University of St. Andrews, 
and, when silenced by Archbishop Whit- 
gift (although he had been recommended 
to his position in the Temple by the bish- 
op of London, the diocesan thereof), was 
invited over by Adam Loftus, archbishop 
of Dublin and chancellor of Ireland, to be 
provost of Trinity College, and there con- 
tinued a number of years. Fuller's ani- 
madvertor, Dr. Heylin, refers to this Ant- 
werp presbytery, as a " mongrel company, 
consisting of two blue aprons to each 
crewel night-cap." But Neal's descrip- 
tion should be set alongside. 

In 1582, Edmund Grindal, archbishop 
of Canterbury, commanded Dr. Aubrey, 
his vicar-general, to license Mr. John Mor- 
rison, a Scots divine, who had had no other 
ordination than what he received from a 
Scots presbytery, to preach over his whole 
province, and "to celebrate the Divine 
Offices, to minister the Sacraments, etc." 



Ordinations ? 283 

The words of the license are as follows : 
" Since you, the aforesaid John Morrison, 
about five years past, in the town of Gar- 
rett, in the county of Lothian, of the king- 
dom of Scotland, were admitted and or- 
dained to sacred orders and the holy 
ministry, by the imposition of hands, ac- 
cording to the laudable form and rite of 
the Eeformed Church of Scotland ; and 
since the congregation of that county 
of Lothian is conformable to the orthodox 
faith, and sincere religion now received in 
this realm of England, and established by 
public authority : we, therefore, as much as 
lies in us, and as by right we may, ap- 
proving and ratifying the form of your ordi- 
nation and preferment done in such manner 
aforesaid, grant unto you a license and 
faculty, with the consent and express com- 
mand of the most reverend father in Christ, 
the Lord Edmund, by the Divine Provi- 
dence archbishop of Canterbury, to us 
signified, that in such orders by you 
taken, you may and have power in any 
convenient places in and throughout the 
whole province of Canterbury, to celebrate 
divine offices, to minister the sacraments, 



284 Ordinations ? 

etc., as much as in you lies ; and we may 
dejure, and as far as the laws of the king- 
dom do allow." The license is dated April 
6, 1582. 1 

But about the same time the bishop of 
London dealt out very different measure 
to one Eobert Wright, fourteen years resi- 
dent in the University of Cambridge, do- 
mestic chaplain to Lord Rich, in whose 
chapel, in the hundreds of Essex, he 
preached without interruption during the 
lifetime of his patron. After that event 
he was cast into prison, and presently pro- 
nounced a mere layman, incapable of hold- 
ing any living in the Church ; and yet, as 
he argued before his lordship, he had 
preached seven years in the University of 
Cambridge, and had been " regularly or- 
dained, by the laying on of the hands of 
the presbyters at Antwerp." Nor would 
the bishop ever grant him a license, always 
saying that he was no minister. 2 

No one doubts the honesty and scholar- 
ship of the sainted Keble. And he some- 

1 Strype's Life of Grindal. Perry's English Church 
History. Neal's History of the Puritans. 

2 Strype's Annals, vol. iii. Neal's Puritans (Harpers, 
1871), i., 152. 



Ordinations ? 285 

where speaks of "the numbers who had 
been admitted to the ministry of the 
Church of England, with no better than 
Presbyterian ordination." 

In the First Book of Discipline of the 
Scottish Presbyterians (Knox, Winram, 
Willox, Douglas, Eow, and Spottiswoode, 
compilers), ordination was rejected as un- 
necessary and superfluous; and it was 
never practised by Knox and his co-adju- 
tors. The election of " ministers " was 
vested solely in the people. On passing a 
satisfactory examination, the individual 
elected was to be introduced to his congre- 
gation by his brethren without ordination 
or ceremony of any hind — the " approbation 
of the people, and the declaration of the 
chief minister, that the person is appointed 
to serve," being expressly declared suffi- 
cient ; for, according to the compilers, "al- 
beit the Apostles used the imposition of 
hands, yet seeing the miracle is ceased, 
the using the ceremony we judge not to be 
necessary." ! 

1 Lawson's History of the Scottish Episcopal Church, 
vol. i., 45, 46, 246, 247. 



286 Ordinations ? 

By the influence of Andrew Melville it 
was inserted in the Second Book of Disci- 
pline (1579-1581), and the power of it in- 
vested in the presbyteries. 

On the last clay of February, 1596-97, 
among the fifty-two articles submitted to 
the famous Perth Assembly was this 
query: "Is he a lawful pastor who wanteth 
impositionem manuum ? " And the decision 
was : " Imposition or laying on of hands is 
not essential and necessary, but ceremonial 
and indifferent, in admission of a pastor." 

In 1598, at the admission of Mr. Robert 
Bruce as minister of Edinburgh, Mr. Rob- 
ert Pont, a minister who had never been 
" ordained," appeared as a zealous advocate 
of imposition ; which curious circumstance 
led the fanatical and anti-prelatical histo- 
rian, David Calderwood, to say : " It is to 
be observed that this imposition of hands, 
whereabout this business was made, was 
holden for a ceremony unnecessary and in- 
different in our Kirk." 



An eminent Lutheran divine, professor, 
and historian has recently said that, in 



Ordinations ? 2S7 

Sweden, " every diocese is regarded as a 
co-ordinate part of the State Church ; the 
whole being subordinate only to the king. 
Seven of these dioceses existed before the 
Reformation, five new dioceses were cre- 
ated in the seventeenth century. The 
consecration of a bishop is regarded as 
conveying no higher gifts than those be- 
longing to every true preacher of the Word. 
In former times, by a special royal dispen- 
sation, but which was very rarely granted, 
ordinations were administered in an Epis- 
copal vacancy by a provost ; the rule, how- 
ever, of exclusive ordination by bishops is 
now strictly enforced." * Elsewhere, writ- 
ing of these non-episcopal ordinations, he 
says : " Arrangements were accordingly 
made for the ordination. The officiating 
ministers were Eudman, Bjork, and San- 
del, all of whom signed the ordination cer- 
tificate." This was in 1701. "Twenty- 
four years afterward, when this was cited 
as a precedent, the four Swedish pastors 
disclaimed the authority to ordain, and 
explained the ordination of Falconer upon 

1 Vol. IV. of The American Church History Series 
(Rev. Professor Henry E. Jacobs, D.D.), pp. 77, 97, 101. 



288 Ordinations ? 

the ground that Budnian had been made, 
by the ' Archbishop of Sweden/ Suffragan 
or Vice-bishop." But such ordinations 
were not unusual, as our good Lutheran 
authority adds almost immediately : " It 
is interesting to note that, by a commission 
of the archbishop and consistory in Up- 
sala of November 7, 1739, the two Swedish 
pastors in America, Dylander and Trau- 
berg, were directed to ordain to the minis- 
try William Malandir." It appears, too, 
that when John Eneberg, who had studied 
at Upsala, was to be admitted to the min- 
istry, Svedberg, then bishop of Skara, 
commissioned the Bev. Mr. Norborg, the 
Swedish pastor in London, where Eneberg 
then (1729) was, to ordain him. 



XX 

EPISCOPAL VISITATIONS 



19 



" Where bishops were numerous and dioceses of small 
extent, it is probable that baptism was, as a rule, performed 
only in the bishop's church, and that confirmation, as a 
separate rite, existed only for those cases in which pres- 
byters had baptized in an emergency. In some of the most 
ancient rituals, baptism, confirmation, and communion are 
successive stages in a single ceremony. But this had be- 
come impossible in the great country districts. The part 
of the baptismal rite which was ordinarily performed by 
presbyters and deacons was performed by them, without 
the presence of a bishop, in a " baptismal," or, as it would 
now be termed, a " parish " church. The part which was 
ordinarily performed by a bishop, and which in the West, 
though not in the East, had come to be considered an in- 
alienable function of the episcopal office, was postponed 
until the bishop's annual visit." — Hatch's Growth of 
Church Institutions. 

4 'In the Anglo-Saxon Church, the bishop was the sole 
minister of confirmation, which was regularly given after 
baptism. But as he could not always be present, he was 
careful in his annual visits to administer confirmation to 
those lately baptized." — LingarcCs Anglo-Saxon Church. 

" We strictly enjoin parish priests to cause children to 
be confirmed as soon as possible after baptism ; and that 
they may not, through the negligence of their parents, re- 
main any longer unconfirmed, we command that infants 
receive the sacrament of confirmation within three years 
after their birth." — Cap. III., Synod of Exeter, under 
Peter Quivil, bishop of Exeter, 1287. 



CHAPTEE XX 
EPISCOPAL VISITATIONS 

"And it came to pass, as Peter passed 
throughout all quarters, he came down also 
to the saints which dwelt at Lydda." * 

"Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go 
again and visit our brethren in every city 
where we have preached the word of the 
Lord, and see how they do. And he went 
through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the 
churches." 2 

" And after he had spent some time there 
(Antioch), he departed, and went over all 
the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, 
strengthening all the disciples." 3 

"Now some are puffed up, as though I 
would not come to you. But I will come 
shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, 
not the speech of them which are puffed 
up, but the power." 4 

1 Acts ix. 32. 2 Ibid. xv. 36, 41. 

3 Ibid, xviii. 23. 4 1 Corinthians iv. 19. 



292 Episcopal Visitations 

" I will come unto you, when I shall pass 
through Macedonia." * 

" Behold, the third time I am ready to 
come to you." 2 

" And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, 
and called the elders of the church." 8 

" What thou seest, write in a book, and 
send it unto the seven churches which are 
in Asia." 4 

The council of Tarragona (516), held dur- 
ing the reign of Theodoric, king of Italy, 
and guardian of Amalric, king 

Annual. ° . . 

of Spain, at which ten bishops 
were present, appears to have been the first 
to enact a canon (vm.) directing yearly 
visitations. 

The council of Lugo (569), held there by 
King Theodomir, ordered a new division of 
the dioceses in Gallicia, on the ground that 
they were too large to admit of a yearly 
visitation. 

The council of Braga, held in June, 572, 
by Martin, the archbishop, twelve other 
prelates being present, which acknowledged 

1 1 Corinthians xvi. 5. 2 2 Corinthians xii. 14. 

3 Ibid. xx. 17. 4 The Revelation i. 11. 



Episcopal Visitations 293 

the four first ecumenical councils, but not 
the fifth, drew up ten canons, one of which 
implied that bishops should inspect their 
respective dioceses yearly. 

The fourth council of Toledo (633), a 
national council, to which sixty-six arch- 
bishops and bishops came from all parts of 
Spain, and at which Isidore of Seville pre- 
sided, enacted a canon (xxxvi.), ordering 
every bishop to visit annually every parish 
in his diocese. 

Across the sea, it was the council of 
Cloves-Hoo, held in the year 747, in the 
presence of Ethelbald, king of the Mer- 
cians, Archbishop Cuthbert, of Canterbmy, 
presiding, eleven bishops and several 
priests in attendance, which first ordered 
(canon in.) annual episcopal visitations for 
the Anglo-Saxon Church. Two years pre- 
viously the German Boniface had written 
to Cuthbert, saying : " We have deter- 
mined in our synod that every presbyter, 
during the season of Lent, shall annually 
give an account of his ministry to his 
bishop, who shall every year carefully make 
a circuit of his parish (diocese)." 



294 Episcopal Visitations 

As to the objects of these annual visita- 
tions, the canon (yiii.) of the council of 
Ob'ects Tarragona (516) on the sub- 
ject, ordered them that the 
bishop might provide for the repair of the 
out-worn or ill-used churches of his dio- 
cese. 

According to the third council of Braga 
(572), the bishop was to remain in each 
parish two days. The first w r as. to be de- 
voted to the clergy ; on the second, he was 
to assemble the people, and instruct them 
in the principles of the Faith. 

The fourth council of Toledo (633) laid 
it upon the bishops, in their yearly cir- 
cuit, to keep the church fabrics in good 
repair ; and to instruct and discipline the 
clergy. 

The Anglo-Saxon council of Cloves-Hoo 
(747), ordered the bishop, as he went his 
annual rounds, to call the people of every 
condition together to convenient places, 
and to teach plainly, and forbid them all 
pagan and superstitious observances, etc. 

Under Charlemagne, the bishops, to 
whom he had granted spiritual jurisdiction, 
investing them with the offices of chan- 



' Episcopal Visitations 295 

cellor and first councillor, nominating them 
his missiy were further required to make 
annual visitations (Sends) for the trial of 
sins or misdemeanors in every parish. 

Giesler 1 says that in the rxth century 
the bishop was also under instructions to 
see that every parish had a Roman Peniten- 
tial, edited by Archbishop Theodore (Pri- 
mate of England, 669-690), or by the ven- 
erable Beda, presbyter. 

The national council of "Westminster, 
held in 1200 by Hubert Walter, archbishop 
of Canterbury, states in one of its fifteen 
canons, that " the object of visitation is to 
see to what concerns the cure of souls ; and 
also that every church hath a silver chalice, 
sacerdotal vestments, proper books, and 
other utensils." 

The first canonical reference to confirma- 
tion in connection with episcopal visita- 
tions, is to be found in the acts of the coun- 
cil (743) of Leptina. 

The capitularies of Charlemagne also 
provide for confirmation at the time of the 
bishop's annual visit. 

iEccles. Hist., ii., 440, 



296 Episcopal Visitations 

The third council of Braga (572) fixed 

the legal fee for a visitation at two solidi — 

" the honorary payment due 

Accessories. J ± J 

the office." This action was 
aimed at those bishops who were in the 
habit of assessing the parishes, on occasion 
of their visitations, for the increase of per- 
sonal income, the repair of their cathedrals, 
etc.; and parishes were writhing under the 
burden. 

The seventh council of Toledo (646) en- 
acted, amongst other precautions to pre- 
vent extortion, that no bishop shall remain 
in any parish during his visitation more 
than a single day ; and that he shall not 
demand an unreasonable number of horses 
for his conveyance. Should he prolong 
his stay beyond the time specified, it must 
be at his own cost. 

The second council of Chalons, held (813) 
by order of Charlemagne for the reforma- 
tion of the Church and clergy, forbade 
bishops to exact anything, on their visita- 
tions, for the lamps and oil of their ow T n 
churches ; cancelled the annual tax of 
twelve or fourteen denarii they had come 
to demand; and declared that they must 



Episcopal Visitations 297 

not put their clergy to any expense during 
their circuit. 

According to a capitulary of Louis the 
Pious (819), the bishop was to receive as 
his procuration (the fee due at a visitation) 
" forty loaves, one pig, three young porkers, 
three fowls, fifteen eggs, three tuns of ale, 
and four sacks of oats for his horses." 

The second council of Ticene (855) again 
limited the quantity of bread and meat 
which the bishop might demand at the time 
of his visitation. 

The fourth council of Valence, held Janu- 
ary 8, 855, by order of the Emperor Lo- 
thaire, fourteen bishops, with the metro- 
politans, attending from the provinces of 
Lyons, Vienne, and Aries, passed a canon 
(xxn.), excusing parishes, not visited by the 
bishop that year, from paying the episco- 
pal assessment : no visitation, no visitation 
fee. 

A capitulary of Charles the Bald (d. 
877) enacts that bishops must choose the 
richer parishes for their visitations ; that 
four parishes might unite to bear the ex- 
penses of a visitation ; and that a bishop 
must look after his own entertainment, 



298 Episcopal Visitations 

should he visit a parish more than once a 
year. 

The council of Lateran, held March 2, 
1179 (falsely styled by the Latins the elev- 
enth ecumenical, no bishops being present 
from the orthodox eastern Churches), Alex- 
ander III., presiding over two hundred and 
eighty bishops connected with the see of 
Eome, limited the retinue of an archbishop 
to fifty horses ; a bishop's, to thirty ; and 
a cardinal's, to twenty-five. 

Across the sea, the retinue of a bishop, 
in his parochial visitations, was limited to 
the number of twenty or thirty attendants, 
with their horses, which were to be enter- 
tained for a night and a day ; but in later 
times a composition in money was received. 
Nor could a bishop claim more than one 
procuration a day, however many churches 
he might visit between midnight and mid- 
night. 1 

The national council of Westminster 
(1200) passed a canon, containing this pro- 
vision : That in visiting parishes, an arch- 
bishop's train exceed not the number of 

1 Hart's Ecclesiastical Records, based on Wilkins's Con- 
cilia. 



E r pisco^pal Visitations 299 

forty or fifty horsemen; nor a bishop's 
twenty or thirty ; also that they make not 
their progress with hunting dogs or birds 
(hawks). 

In Ireland, the visitation of a district was 
originally the function of the abbot, who 
was generally the ecclesiastical superior of 
the bishop ; and of the abbots of Melrose, 
Kelso, Jedburgh, and Dryburgh, in Scotia 
Nova, it is said that " they ranked with 
the foremost prelates in the land, enjoyed 
the privileges of the mitre and crozier, 
were entitled to sit in the national coun- 
cils, and commissioned by the sovereign 
to serve their country in embassies, and 
entrusted with the weightiest interests of 
the State." 1 

The learned editor of " Primate Colton's 
Visitation" (xivth century) enumerates a 
number of visitations made by the abbots 
of that day. In 1150, for instance, the 
successor of Patrick made a visitation of 
Tir-Eoghain, and obtained full tribute of 
cows — a cow from every house of a biatach 
and freeman, a horse from every chieftain, 
and twenty cows from the king himself. 

1 Stewart's Church of Scotland, pp. 75, 76. 



300 Episcopal Visitations 

In 1153, the visitation of Dal-Cairbre and 
Ui Eathach Uladh was made by Flaith- 
bheartach Ua Brolchain, a successor of 
Columcille, and he received a horse from 
every chieftain, a sheep from every hearth, 
a screaball, a horse, and five cows from the 
Lord Ua Duinnsleibhe, and an ounce of 
gold from his wife. Three years previously 
the same abbot, with the unpronounceable 
name, had made the visitation of Eoghaiu, 
when he obtained a horse from every chief- 
tain, a cow from every two biataches, a 
cow from every three freeholders, a cow 
from every four villains, twenty cows from 
the king, and a gold ring of five ounces, 
his horse, and his battle-dress from Muir- 
cheartach. And in 1161, when he made a 
visitation of Osraighe, the tribute due to 
him was seven score oxen ; but he chose, 
as a substitute, four hundred and twenty 
ounces of pure silver. 

In the diocese of Eaphoe, in the xnith 
century, the practice was that the bishop 
"laie the first night upon the herenagh, 
the second night upon the viccar, and the 
third night upon the parson ; and that if 
he staid but one night in the parish, the 



Episcopal Visitations 301 

parson, viccar, and herenagh did contrib- 
ute equally toward that charge." a 

The usage of Caithness, in the same cen- 
tury, was that for every score of cows a 
"span" of butter should be paid to the 
bishop. Bishop Adam, who was conse- 
crated 1214, exacted the same quantity 
from fifteen cows ; then from twelve ; and 
finally, for every ten. As a consequence, 
he was seized by an infuriated crowd, 
thrust into a hut, and there burned to 
death along with his prison-house. 2 

Cap. vii. of the "Constitutions of Arch- 
bishop Stratford " (1342), runs : " Whereas 
archdeacons and other superior ordinaries 
exact at their visitations excessive and un- 
lawful procurations, and often, by a fraud- 
ulent contrivance, come on the night before 
the visitation day, and lodge in the houses 
of the rectors and vicars, to their great 
cost, with their cumbersome retinues and 
dogs for hunting; and on the morrow, 
when the visitation is ended, extort a 
whole procuration in money, as if they had 

1 Primate Colton's Visitation, p. 118. 

2 Cosmo limes' s Sketches of Early Scottish History, pp. 

77, 78, 



302 Episcopal Visitations 

not received any in victuals ; we therefore 
strictly forbid anything of the kind done 
in future." l 

The Irish Parliament, held at Trim, 
1447, enacted that no equestrian, beneath 
the rank of knight or bishop, should use a 
gilt bridle, or any other gilt harness. On 
the death of a suffragan, the archbishop of 
Armagh claimed the best horse, cup, and 
ring of the deceased prelate. 2 

In the xvnth century, as well as earlier, 
it was customary for the churchwardens to 
make a present to the bishop when he vis- 
ited their parish. In the register of S. 
James's, Bristol, England, these items are 
set down : 

1626. For a sugar loaf that was given my 

lord at Christmas 15s. Qd. 

1629. Paid for a sugar loaf for the Lord 

Bishop (Robert Wright) 15s. lQd. 

1634. Paid for two sugar loaves bestowed 

on the Lord Bishop £1 6s. Qd. 

Let us not say that the archbishop of 
Salzburg, in the xvinth century, was fol- 
lowed by so great a train on his visitations ; 

1 Hart's Ecclesiastical Records, p. 113. 

2 Harris's Ware, i., 185, 253. 



Episcopal Visitations 303 

but it is on record that, in 1767, his retinue 
consisted of a high steward ; a high cham- 
berlain; a marshal; a master of the sta- 
bles ; a master of the chase ; a master of 
the body guard ; a master of the kitchen ; 
a chancellor ; a hereditary grand marshal ; 
a hereditary grand chamberlain ; a hered- 
itary grand butler, and hereditary grand 
steward (counts every one of them) ; 
twenty - four councillors ; a consistory 
court ; a court of justice ; a military cab- 
inet ; and a cabinet of finance. 

Going to Frankfort, to the coronation of 
the emperor (1790), the archbishop of 
Mainz had a train of fifteen hundred at- 
tendants, among whom were a "capon- 
maker and a child's nurse." 

The great Athanasius, the "Father of 
Orthodoxy," was accompanied on his visi- 
tations by a retinue of priests, confirm a- 
deacons, and laymen. tlons * 

Martin of Tours, a soldier in his youth, 
went around his diocese (375-400) clad in 
ragged dress, and on an ass. 

Aidan, monk of Iona, who became bish- 
op of the Northumbrians in 635, after es- 



304 Episcopal Visitations 

tablishing his see at Lindisfarne (to which 
the name of Holy Isle was given in after- 
times), went through his diocese (the 
whole of Bernicia and Deira) on foot ; and 
"whomsoever he met on the way, whether 
rich or poor, he stopped to converse with 
them ; if they were still heathens, he ex- 
horted them to receive the sacrament of 
faith ; if they were believers, he strength- 
ened them in their belief, and encouraged 
them to the performance of almsgiving 
and all good works." 1 He also had a 
church and a chamber, near Bamborough, 
where he often dwelt for a time, and used 
to go out thence in all directions, preach- 
ing. 

The humble-minded Chad, twice con- 
secrated to the bishopric — to the see of 
York, and, later (669), by the Italian arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, Theodore, as bishop 
of the Mercians, was also wont, as the 
same Bede says, " to travel about, not on 
horseback, but after the manner of the 
apostles, on foot, to preach the gospel in 
the towns, the open country, cottages, vil- 
lages, and castles," endeavoring to know 

1 Bede : Ecclesiastical History, iii., 5. 



Episcopal Visitations 305 

his people personally in their own resorts 
and haunts." 

Cuthbert, another bishop of Lindisf arne, 
a keeper of sheep in his youth, a boy with- 
out his equal in all sports and athletic 
exercises, yet so impressed with the reali- 
ties of the unseen world that he entered 
the monastery of Melrose at the age of 
fifteen, penetrated to the remotest and 
poorest villages on foot, scaled the rugged- 
est mountains in search of forgotten ham- 
lets, and, wherever he went over his vast 
diocese, to administer confirmation 1 to 
converts, was ever the monk and mission- 
ary, sleeping under a tent, resting on 
boughs, advising with the woman who had 
devoted herself to him while he was but a 
shepherd lad, at home in the palaces of 
queens, the confidant of peasants and prin- 
cesses. 

Anskar, the apostle of Sweden, the brave 

1 "No record of the manner in which confirmation was 
administered has come down to us. If the practice of S. 
Cuthbert was the same as that of S Aidan and the disci- 
ples of Columba, this sacred rite, in the ancient Scottish 
Church, followed immediately after Baptism, and was con- 
ferred by the imposition of the hands of the bishop, and 
by anointing with consecrating chrism.'* — Grub's Eccles. 
Hist, of Scotland., I., 148. 
20 



306 JEpiscqpal Visitations 

monk who volunteered (826) to undertake 
the evangelization of Denmark, whose fero- 
cious king, Harold, had just been baptized 
with great pomp, would never sit down to 
dinner, as he made the visitation of his 
diocese, "without first ordering some of 
the poor to be brought in ;" and sometimes 
he would wash their feet, and distribute 
bread and meat among them. 

Malachy, to whom the see of Armagh 
was left (1129) by will, but who did not 
enter on possession until the lay arch- 
bishop (1134) was frightened out of it, 
restored the sacrament of confirmation, 
which had been neglected through eight 
administrations at least, preached in the 
streets of the cities subject to him, and, 
attended by his faithful monks, visited, on 
foot, all the smaller towns and villages of 
his diocese of Connor, where he was bish- 
op many years before his promotion to the 
primacy. This is the saint and intimate 
of whom Bernard of Clairvaux wrote so 
lovingly and well. 

A later archbishop of Armagh, Gelasius, 
who died in 1173, took a white cow with 
him on his visitations, for he was weak in- 



Episcopal Visitations 307 

ternally, and "milk formed his only suste- 
nance." 1 

Of Beginald, bishop of Man, who died 
about 1225, it is on record that he made 
his episcopal visitations throughout the 
other islands of his diocese as far as Lewis ; 
but the manner of them is not a matter of 
history. 2 

Thomas de Cantilupe, the son of Baron 
William Cantilupe, seneschal of Henry 
III., the possessor, later, of four papal 
bulls, granting him permission to hold any 
number of benefices in England simultane- 
ously ; then chancellor of university of Ox- 
ford (1262) ; then chancellor of England 
(1265); then chaplain of the bishop of 
Rome ; then, at one and the same time, 
precentor and canon of York, archdeacon 
of Stafford, canon of Lichfield, canon of 
London, canon of Hereford, and holder of 

1 Girald. Camb. Experg. Hib., c. 34. Brompton, the 
abbot of an English Cistercian monastery (xivth century), 
says that in his day some of the wealthy Irish were wont 
to baptize their children in milk. In attestation whereof 
is the testimony of Benedict of Peterborough, a contem- 
porary : "Mos enim prius erat per di versa loca Hiberniae 
quod statim cum puer nasceretur. ... si divitis fu= 
erit filius, ter mergeretur in lacte." — Gest. Hon., ii., 28. 

2 Grub's Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, i., 322. 



308 Episcopal Visitations 

the livings of Doderholt, Hampton, Aston, 
Wintringhani, Deighton, Eippel, and Sun- 
terfield ; and (1275), at the age of fifty-six, 
bishop of Hereford ; so very modest that 
he would not allow his sisters to kiss him ; 
such a moderate eater, that he would send 
away the dainty dishes after smelling 
them, although he " liked lampreys ; " — 
rode through his diocese with his stole in 
due place under his cloak, and whenever 
he saw a child along the road, if he ascer- 
tained it was unconfirmed, he jumped off 
his horse and administered the sacrament 
on the spot. 

James Kennedy, 1 grandson of Robert 
III., bishop of St. Andrews, who was trans- 
lated to Paradise in the year 1466, "visited 
every kirk in his diocese four times a year, 
and preached to the said parishioners the 
word of God, and inquired of them if they 
were duly instructed by their parsons and 
vicars, and if the poor were sustained, and 
the youth brought up and learned accord- 
ing to the order that was taken in the Kirk 
of God." 

Charles Borromeo, who, at the age of 

1 Lindsay's Chronicles of Scotland. 



Episcopal Visitations 309 

twenty-one, was invested by Pius IV. with 
the office of protonotary and a cardinal's 
hat, and the next year (1560) put in pos- 
session of the see of Milan, visited the 
highest mountain-hamlets and the most 
secluded villages, sitting with stupid little 
children to teach them the Pater noster and 
the Ave, distributing alms to the peasantry, 
and listening with unwearied patience to 
the complaints of ignorant and ailing 
women. 

Oliver Plunket, one of the Eoman titu- 
lar bishops of Ireland (1669), reported to 
the Propaganda that within four years he 
had administered the sacrament of con- 
firmation to 48,655 persons. John Fal- 
conar, one of the " exauctorate " bishops of 
the Scottish Church, a bishop-at-large, not 
consecrated (1709) to any see, 1 was fore- 
most among the prelates of his day in re- 
storing the rite of confirmation, which can 
hardly be said to have been used since the 
overthrow of the (Italian) hierarchy in the 
xvith century (circ. 1560). 2 

1 See Chapter on The College Bishops. 

2 Grub's Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, iii. , 369. 
But Burnet says that Leighton, who died 1684, went 
around continually every year, while bishop of Dumblane, 



310 Episcopal Visitations 

Archbishop King, writing to the bishop 
of Clogher, under date October 4, 1720, 
paused to remark, as if it were some new 
thing: "I have gone through my diocese 
and confirmed in twenty country churches, 
in each of which I made a discourse." 

The act of 1746, which was aimed at the 
destruction of the Scottish Church, and 
recognized only letters of orders from 
Irish or English bishops, soon brought 
into Edinburgh and elsewhere numbers of 
clergymen ordained outside of Scotland ; 
and it is stated that the celebrated Bishop 
Pococke, when wandering through those 
parts on an antiquarian tour, administered, 
with or without warrant from the " exauc- 
torate " Scottish bishops, the rite of con- 
firmation to congregations long deprived 
of the advantages consequent on an epis- 
copal visitation. 1 

preaching and catechizing from parish to parish. Is it 
possible that confirmation was not included ? 

1 In going systematically round his diocese last year 
(1894), the archbishop of York penetrated into a parish 
where the countenance of no prelate had been seen since 
the fourteenth century. Archbishop Maclagan's remote 
predecessor went there to investigate the misdeeds of a 
female parishioner charged with having buried her cow 
with Christian rites and covered its remains with the par- 
ish pall. 



XXI 
THE OLD-TIME BISHOP 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE OLD-TIME BISHOP 

Justinian L, Eoman emperor (527-565), 
who eventually lapsed into heresy (just as 
his church of S. Sophia in A secular 
Constantinople, once the most Magnate- 
magnificent cathedral in Christendom, has 
been converted into a Turkish mosque), 
entrusted the bishops with civil jurisdic- 
tion over monks and nuns, as well as over 
the clergy ; gave them the privilege of 
legislating against gaming and prostitution, 
etc.; allowed them to interfere where jus- 
tice was refused or miscarried ; consti- 
tuted them judges of magistrates in certain 
contingencies ; conveyed to them the right 
of concurrence in the choice of city offi- 
cials, and a joint oversight of the adminis- 
tration of the city funds, and the mainte- 
nance of public establishments. 1 

1 Giesler's Ecclesiastical History, ii. , 118. 



314: The Old-Time Bishop 

In the viith century, bishops were 
often employed in affairs of state, and 
oversight of the entire administration of 
justice was committed to them, their spir- 
itual punishments including civil disad- 
vantages. 1 

From Charlemagne's time all bishops 
were obliged to employ advocates for 
transacting the secular affairs incompatible 
with their sacred calling. 2 They were also 
made the emperor's missi, empowered to 
visit the parishes and try cases involving 
sins or misdemeanors. 

In the xth century the bishops of the 
Frankish empire were the possessors of 
almost royal prerogatives. Lewis the In- 
fant conferred on the bishop of Treves 
902) and on the bishop of Tongern (908) 
the privileges of counts. Henry I. be- 
stowed on the bishop of Toul (928) the 
dukedom and dignity of the city of Toul, 
the first instance of this sort. Otto I. 
invested his brother Bruno, archbishop 
of Cologne, with the dukedom of Lor- 



rain. 3 



1 Giesler's Ecclesiastical History, ii., 156. 

2 Ibid., ii M 255. 3 Ibid., ii. , 374. 



The Old-Time Bishop 315 

Bishops were also now, as vassals of the 
king, expected to follow the court to war, 
and even to lead their troops in person. 
Thus Luitbert, archbishop of Mainz, fought 
against the Normans (872) ; against the 
Sorabes (874) ; and again (883 and 885) 
against the Normans. Bishop Arno of 
Wiirzburg took the field (892) against the 
Slavonians. Henry, bishop of Augsburg, 
with many other bishops as allies, attacked 
(982) the Saracens. Michael, bishop of 
Batisbon, accompanied the Bavarian 
princes against Hungary. 1 

Across the channel, the bishops of the 
sea-girt isles were also acquiring the priv- 
ileges connected with markets, coinage, 
tolls, and feudal judicature. 

The Council of Gratlea, 2 held about 925 
by King Ethelstan, Wulfhelm, archbishop 
of Canterbury, and other prelates, being 
present, passed twenty-six laws, seven of 
them ecclesiastical, and among them one 
which secured the right of mintage to the 

1 Giesler's Ecclesiastical History, ii., 377. Also see 
Chapter XV. on Martial Prelates, in Bishops' Blue 
Book. 

2 Hart's Ecclesiastical Records, 63. 



316 The Old- Time Bishop 

primate * and to the bishop of Rochester. 
And it was so that, some time before the 
Conquest, the weregild of the primate was, 
by Kentish law, greater than that of the 
king. On one occasion the signature of 
the archbishop (Janbyrht) was placed be- 
fore that of King Offa. 

By the laws of Edward the Confessor 
(1052) confirmed subsequently by William 
I., all archbishops, bishops, earls, barons, 
and all who have (the right of) sac, soc, thol, 
theam, and infangihefe, were to have their 
soldiers and other retainers under their 
own friburgh. "Let them also have their 
esquires and other servants under their 
friburgh" 

In the xnth century (1175-78) King 
"William the Lion granted a charter to a 
Scottish bishop, which gave him the privi- 
lege of having a burgh at Glasgow, with a 
market on Thursday. 2 And the grant to 

1 A charter of Henry VI. (1446) confirmed this ancient 
privilege of the archbishops of Canterbury, in these 
words : " Tres rnonetarios cum tribus cuneis ad monetam 
fabricandum in civitate cantuarien, perpetud habendos." 

2 In the year 1450, the bishop of Glasgow had obtained 
a jurisdiction of regality, and the city continued subject to 



The Old-Time Bishop 317 

Bishop Jocelin ran thus : " Ut burgum hab- 
eant (episcopi) apud Glasgow cum fore die 
Jovis" 

The archbishops of St. Andrews were 
" Lords of Regality " over three extensive 
districts — certain Parishes, Superiorities, 
and Feu-farms, over which they exercised 
a temporal jurisdiction ; the bailies repre- 
senting them in their absence. 1 

Before the Reformation, this Scottish 
archbishop was the first peer of the king- 
dom, and ranked next to the royal family. 
He crowned the sovereign. He was the 
constant chancellor of the university, and 
could confer degrees ad lib. His titles 
were : " Lord of the Lordship and Priory 
of St. Andrews; Lord Keig and Mony- 
musk; Lord Kirkliston; Lord Dairsey; 
Lord Monimail; Lord Scotscraig; Lord 
Fyningham ; Lord Byrehills ; Lord Pol- 
duff ; Lord Bishopshire ; Lord Muckhart- 

the bishop until the Reformation ; but it was not a royal 
burgh legally, till the charter of Charles I. — Cosmo Innes's 
Sketches of Early Scotch History, 120. 

1 Gordon's Scotichronicon (1867) i., 103: u The Cocket 
Seal had on one side the King's Arms, with his circum- 
scription, and on the other St. Andrew bearing his Cross 
with circumscription, Sigillum coquetae sti An- 



318 The Old-Time Bishop 

shire ; Lord Stow ; Lord Angus ; Lord 
Little Preston." With his Regalities, he 
was supreme judge in almost all civil and 
criminal cases. "He had a right, within 
his bounds, to appropriate all escheats of 
goods and forfeited property, to coin 
money, and levy custom-house duties on 
wood, hides, skins, flesh, fish, and other 
goods within the city and territory of St. 
Andrews; and also to the whole of the 
cocket-duty, part of which had before been 
received by the king. The power and 
the privilege of the Admiralty belonged to 
the archbishop, who had the power of is- 
suing and directing cochets, i.e., safe-con- 
ducts or passes to all ships outward-bound 
from ports within his jurisdiction." " Ev- 
ery bishop, on being admitted to his 
rights, was obliged to swear allegiance to 
him as well as to the king ; and to pay 
him a small sum annually under the name 
of homage-money.' 9 The revenues of the 
see in the xinth century amounted to 
.£40,000, at present quotations. 1 

In the xvth century the archbishop of 
Dublin had the rights of a prince pal- 

1 Gordon's Scotichronicon, i., 103, 4. 



Tlie Old Time Bishop 319 

atine — those of a king in his palace 
(palatium) in his own jurisdiction: all 
writs were in his name, and offences were 
said to be against his peace ; he could 
also pardon treasons, murders, and felo- 
nies. 1 

In the year 1614, 2 a crown charter " con- 
firmed and mortified" lands in certain of 
the island parishes of the see of Orkney to 
the bishop thereof and his successors ; and 
"the whole lands, whether of old called 
king's lands, bishop's lands, udal lands, or 
kirk lands, were conveyed in superiority, 
modified in as far as udallers were con- 
cerned, to the bishop, together with the 
holmes, skerries, and all parts and perti- 
nents belonging to the lands." "Aright 
and jurisdiction of sheriff and bailie was 
vested in the bishops within The Bishop- 
ric, with the authority of commissary over 
Orkney and Zetland ; and power being- 
given to appoint sheriffs and bailies, the 
inhabitants of The Bishopric were ex- 

1 For other Bishoprics Palatine see Chapter XVI. in 
Bishops' Blub Book. 

2 Notes on Orkney and Zetland, by Alexander Peterkin, 
Esq., vol. i., pp. 138, 139, 140, quoted in Lawson's Scottish 
Church, vol. i., 353. 



320 The Old- Time Bishop 

empted from the jurisdiction of the earl- 
dom functionaries." x 

In the " good old days " every ordinary 
was expected to have and to hold a decani- 

w M *™™« cum (prison), for the whole- 
Has a prison. VJ - m " 

some discipline of his clergy 
and of the laymen of his diocese who could 
read. The usual test of the layman's learn- 
ing was the Miserere mei Deus, which, as it 
transferred him, on demand, to the custody 
of the bishop, thus saving him from the 
penalty of the civil law, was called the neck 

1 As a survival of the days when the bishop was also the 
civil ruler of the territories belonging to his see it may 
not be amiss to call attention to the fact that the bishop of 
Urgel issued a proclamation last year (1894) in which he 
claimed to be the sole ruler of Andorra, and refuses to ac- 
knowledge the suzerainty of France. Great excitement 
prevails in Andorra, as, from time immemorial, republican 
government administrated that country. By dint of much 
searching, our readers will discover this State among the 
Pyrenees Mountains between France and Spain. Its area 
is exactly four hundred and fifty square miles, and this 
difficulty prevents the militia of the little country from 
practising with a Krupp gun recently purchased by the 
government — the shell would fall into foreign territory. 
Andorra is, with the sister republic S. Marino and the 
principalities Liechtenstein and Monaco, a survival of 
those times when Europe was divided into thousands of 
small, sovereign States. 



.-; 



: 



The Old- Time Bishop 321 

verse. If he could read that, the ordinary 
pronounced the words Legit ut clericus ; 
and the prisoner was delivered over to the 
ecclesiastical jurisdiction. 1 

Nestorius, consecrated to the patriarch- 
ate of Constantinople, April 10, 428, and 
deposed by the council of Ephesus (431), 
by the vote of two hundred bishops, be- 
cause he refused to admit that Mary was 
" Mother of God," or, as Cyril, his antago- 
nist and rival, would put it, because he "re- 
solved Christ into two Sons, to a man filled 
with God," was also accused to the emperor, 
Theodosius II., by Basil, the deacon, as 
one who had treated him and his friends 
with cruel indignity. "They had been 
stripped and beaten," he complained, " and 
led off half naked to the decanicum, where 
they were detained without food, and again 
beaten by the decani " — the jailers. 

That the sacristy or other ecclesiastical 
annex sometimes served the purpose of a 
prison, may be inferred from the letter of 
Gregory III., bishop of Eome (731-741), 
to the emperor, Leo III., in which he says 
that, according to the custom of the Church, 

1 Buras's Ecclesiastical Law {Benefit of Clergy). 
21 



322 The Old- Time Bishop 

an offending clerk, after the bishop has 
hung round his neck the cross and a copy 
of the gospels, is confined in one of the 
treasuries or catechumena of the sacred edi- 
fice. 

Theodore of the Studium, the champion 
of image- worship, the stern opponent of 
Byzantine Erastianism, the unwearied pro- 
tester against the persecution of heretics, 
was imprisoned eighteen months, in a dark 
subterranean dungeon, by the archbishop 
of Smyrna, who, at last, in 819, departed 
for Constantinople to obtain the emperor's 
permission to have either the head or the 
tongue of the heroic sufferer cut off. 

A provincial council in Scotland, held 
1225, decreed (cap. xxvni.) that "clerks 
of every degree shall be protected by the 
Church, until, from the enormity of their 
crimes, justice requires that they be de- 
graded from their orders ; and, that their 
evil deeds may not go unpunished, let such 
clerks, upon conviction, be closely confined 
in the prison of the diocesan, which every 
bishop ought to have, there to be kept upon 
the bread of sorrow and the water of tribu- 
lation." 



^Mii^na 



The Old-Time Bishop 323 

The constitutions of Archbishop Boni- 
face, at Lambeth, 1261, provide " that every 
bishop have in his diocese one or two 
prisons, that provision may be made for 
the secure custody of clerks convicted of 
crimes." 

Among the articles of complaint brought 
by the bishops against Bang Edward I., 
1285, is one (art. iv.) " that excommunicated 
persons shall not be liberated from prison 
without the consent of the bishop." To 
which the royal answer was: "Granted, 
unless the bishop should detain them un- 
justly." 

A few years previously (1274), the coun- 
cil of Saltzburg, held by Frederick, arch- 
bishop and legate, had passed two canons 
(xil, xiii.), ordering bishops to send to 
prison those priests who, although excom- 
municated or suspended, persisted in offi- 
ciating at the holy office. 

By 3 Edward I., c. 2, it was ordered that 
any clerk, arraigned for felony and claimed 
by his ordinary, should be consigned to 
the decanicum, and held there in safe cus- 
tody till he had submitted to canonical pur- 
gation. 



324 The Old-Time Bishop 

By 1 Henry VII., c. 4, a priest or other 
clerk guilty of fornication, adultery, or in- 
cest might be committed to prison by his 
ordinary, where he should abide for a time 
proportionate to the quality of his offence. 

As late as the xvth century there was a 
bishop's prison at Termonf eckan near Drog- 
heda ; and there the archbishop placed one 
Marcello, a papal emissary, convicted of 
loose living. 

The archbishop of Dublin, who had the 
rights of a prince palatine within his lib- 
erties, could also boast of a gallows for the 
execution of criminals, within one mile of 
his palace, at a place called Harold's- 
Cross." 1 

The bishops sat in the Witenagemot 

(the national council of Anglo-Saxon days), 

and also in the shire moots. 

A Baron. 

Under William the Conqueror 
they were numbered among the " barons " — 
freemen who held lands directly of him. 
At a parliament held at Northampton, dur- 
ing the reign of Henry II. (1154-1189), 
the bishops thus challenged their peers : 

1 Harries Ware, i. 300. 



The Old-Time Bishop 325 

non sedemus hie episcopi, sed barones ; nos 
bar ones, vos barones; pares hie sumus. 
John Stratford, archbishop of Canterbury, 
fallen under the displeasure of Edward 
III. (1327-1377), and denied entrance in- 
to the House of Peers, made protest 
that he was primus par regni — " the first 
peer of the realm," and therefore, was 
not to be excluded from his place and 
suffrage. 1 

In the Scotch cathedrals the bishop sat 
in the chapter as a simple canon, without 
pre-eminence of rank or authority. 2 

1 Dr. Heylin argued, as against Fuller, that the English 
bishops had their vote in Parliament as " a third Estate, n 
and not as temporal barons. See Fuller's Appeal of In- 
jured Innocence, iii. 621. 

The bishop of Sodor and Man has no place in Parliament, 
not holding per mtegram Baroniam — " by an entire 
barony." 

"The archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the 
bishops of London, Durham, and Winchester, always sit 
as lords spiritual in the House of Lords ; and of the other 
bishops twenty-one are summoned to Parliament in order 
of seniority of creation. By an Act of 1848, it was enacted 
that the number of lords spiritual should not be increased 
by the creation of new bishoprics. " — Mandell Creighton, 
Professor of Ecclesiastical History, University of Cam- 
bridge. 

2 Cosmo limes' s Sketches of Early Scotch History, 81. 



326 The Old- Time Bishop 

According to the Rev. Mandell Creighton, 
professor of Ecclesiastical History in the 

A Abb t University of Cambridge, half 
of the English cathedrals were 
or early became Benedictine abbeys, of 
which the canons were monks, and the 
bishop the abbot. The bishop of Norwich 
is the only episcopal abbot in England to- 
day, his title, in legal documents being, 
" Bishop of Norwich and Abbot of St. 
Bennet , s-at-Holme, ,, the ruins of which, 
built 1020, on the site of an older hermitage, 
by order of Canute, still remain. It was 
annexed to the bishopric of Norwich in 
1535 ; and as all the abbots had a seat in 
the House of Lords, the present bishop of 
Norwich has a double claim to his seat. 

The Parliament which met at "Westmin- 
ster, April 28, 1540, was the last Parliament 
of England in which the abbots (and there 
were twenty present) sat side by side with 
the bishops and other lords in the House 
of Peers. It was this Parliament that dis- 
solved 645 monasteries, of which 27 were 
represented in the Upper House in the 
persons of their " mitred abbots ; " for, ac- 
cording to a dispensation of the archbishop 



__ 



The Old- Time Bishop 327 

of Canterbury, " by special privilege of the 
pope," the abbots of exempt monasteries 
were entitled to wear the mitre, ring, san- 
dals, gloves, dalmatic, tunic, and other 
episcopal vestments. 1 

" The archbishop (of Canterbury) shall 
have the best nag of the bishop of Roches- 
ter when he dies, and his ken- His 
nel of hunting dogs." 2 This Per ^ ites - 
was in the xth century. 

In the province of Cashel the archbishop 
claimed the best ring, cup, chain, or brevi- 
ary, of a suffragan bishop upon his de- 
cease. 3 

In England each archbishop had a right 
of option, i.e., he could claim some piece 
of preferment in the diocese of every suf- 
fragan bishop whom he consecrated. Ac- 
cording to Burns (Ecclesiastical Law, i., 
197) this important privilege is still con- 
tinued, and is even disposable of by will. 
The archbishop also claimed a heriot on 
the death of any of his suffragans. 

1 Hart's Ecclesiastical Records, 166. 

2 Quoted in Hart's Ecclesiastical Records, as occurring 
in the Jura JEJccles. Cant., A. S., vol. i., 88. 

3 Wilkin's Concilia, iii., 566, can. 78. 



328 The Old-Time Bishop 

As appears from a letter of Archbishop 
Winchelsey (1310), the primate claimed as 
his perquisite the episcopal ring of every 
deceased bishop. 

On the death of Nicholas Bullingham, 
bishop of "Worcester (1577), Dr. Yate, the 
vicar-general of Archbishop Grindal, made 
demand on Mrs. Bullingham for all the 
seals of the deceased prelate, and his best 
ring excepting one ; all of which were sur- 
rendered to him whose due they were. 1 

In the ancient English Church the vest- 
ments of a bishop included sandals (as 
His ornaments for the feet since 

Vestments. ^ e Ynith century), an amyt 
(of fine white linen, covering the head and 
shoulders, crossing over the breast, and 
fastened with two strings to the girdle), an 
alb (a long white tunic, with tight sleeves, 
not open in front, with collars and cuffs 
often richly embroidered), a girdle, a suc- 
cingulum (an ornamental addition to the 
girdle, double, and hanging down upon 

1 Collier's Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain, Bk. 
vi., Part ii. 
For his retinue, see chapter on Ecclesiastical Visitations. 



WM 



The Old- Time Bishop 329 

the left side), a stole, a tunicle (or subtile, 
the subdeacon's vestment), a dalmatic (the 
deacon's vestment, cut at each side about 
half-way up to the arm, fringed, etc.), a 
chasuble (or casula, the principal mass 
vestment, anciently circular, with a hole in 
the centre for the head), a maniple (or su- 
darium, an oblong piece of embroidered 
silk, of the same color as the chasuble of 
the day, folded double, passed over the 
left wrist, or held, according to Anglo-Sax- 
on usage, in the hand), a mitre (originally 
plain, but with two horns since the xith 
century — signifying a knowledge of the 
two Testaments ; of three varieties : The 
pretiosa, of gold, silver and jewels ; the 
aurifrigiata, of silk, embroidered with gold 
thread and pearls; the simplex, of plain 
white damask or linen, with red silk infulaB 
or pendants hanging from it) a pastoral 
staff (curved, in distinction from the pope's 
pedum rectum), gloves (said, by Latin ec- 
clesiastics, to be of apostolic (!) origin, and 
a ring (symbol of the spiritual wedlock 
between the bishop and the Church). On 
solemn occasions a cope was worn ; the ro- 
chette (a tunic of fine linen or lace, falling 



330 The Old- Time Bishop 

below the knees, with or without sleeves) 
and Mozetta (a tippet, cape, or pelerine, 
with a hood appended sometimes) rather 
belonged to his civil costume. Archbish- 
ops bore a cross staff, instead of the pas- 
toral crook, and their distinctive vestment 
was the pall (pallium, a narrow vestment 
of white wool with purple crosses worked 
on it, covering the shoulders over the chas- 
uble, and pendent in front) ; although in 
the Greek and Russian churches it is also 
worn by bishops. 

According to the canons enacted by the 
provincial councils of Perth (1242, 1268), 
the bishops, at the opening of their synods, 
were to be " clad in albs and copes thrown 
around the shoulders, with mitres, and 
bearing in their hands pastoral staffs." 
An earlier Scottish council (1225) had or- 
dained on the same subject : " Let the 
bishops be first vested in their albes, 
amyts, festal copes, mitres, and gloves, 
having their pastoral staves in their 
hands." 

The only distinctive vestment that 
Thomas of Villanova, archbishop of "Valen- 
cia, would wear was a silk instead of a 



The Old-Time Bishop 331 

dirty, old woollen cap; and this bit of 
head gear he exhibited everywhere, saying : 
" Behold my episcopal dignity ! In order 
that I may be esteemed an archbishop, my 
worthy canons have forced me to wear 
this." Thomas belonged to the order of 
Augustinian hermits (1518) ; and it is said 
that the union of his soul with God was so 
close that he fell into raptures at his 
prayers, and that after the sacrifice of the 
mass his face shone like that of Moses. 
"Vowed to poverty," he went about his 
diocese dressed like a pauper. 

The formal fraction of the pastoral staff 
was equivalent to deprivation, as we learn 
from Spelman, who bears record that, in 
the year 1052, " Pope Leo held a synod at 
Verzelay ; at which TJlf, bishop of Dor- 
chester was present, and his episcopal staff 
would certainly have been broken, had he 
not paid a large sum of money; for he 
knew not his office as a bishop ought." It 
was in a later council (London, 1075), held 
under Lanfranc, that "Wulstan, bishop of 
Worcester, was commanded by the arch- 
bishop to resign his token of jurisdiction, 
as being illiterate and unworthy of the 



332 The Old- Time Bishop 

episcopal office ; but with noble scorn he 
refused to surrender it to any save to him 
from whom he had received it — to Ed- 
ward the Confessor, who had laid the bur- 
den on him, and who was now dead. 1 

Jocelin, the Cistercian monk of Furness, 
in the xnth century, dwells, in his "Life 
of St. Patrick," on the Bachall Isa, or the 
staff of Jesus, which was given to the apos- 
tle of Ireland by a hermit in the Tuscan 
sea, who said that he had received it one 
night from a stranger, whom he discovered, 
in the morning, to be no less a personage 
than the Son of Mary ; and, without this 
crozier, no prelate thought himself en- 
throned in Armagh, or was held to be the 
true successor of St. Patrick. Battles 
were fought for its possession ; intrigue 
and bribes were not left untried. After 
the Conquest, it was frequently used for 
the administration of oaths. But the re- 
forming zeal of George Browne, archbishop 
of Dublin, treated it as Nehushtan, and it 
was publicly burnt in 1538 as an instru- 
ment of superstition. 

1 For a graphic description of this scene see S. Baring- 
Gould's u Lives of the Saints," 19 January. 



The Old- Time Bishop 333 

From the vith to the xinth century it 
was customary to compel an accused per- 
son, who had not cleared him- His trial of Or- 
self by oath or compurgation, deals - 

to make a direct appeal to the judg- 
ment of God, supernatural intervention 
being expected to attest his guilt or inno- 
cence. 1 

Among the ordeals (German Urtheil, 
judgment) was the judicium crucis, in which 
both parties raised their arms until the 
body represented the figure of a cross, and 
he was held to be in the wrong whose arms 
fell first. A prelate, Herchenrad, bishop 
of Paris (771), once had recourse to this 
test in a dispute with some monks, and 
was victorious. 

Peter Mediabardi, the new bishop of 
Florence, having been accused of purchas- 
ing his bishopric, the clergy and populace 
of the city, determined to prove the charge 
by the ordeal ofjire, elected a monk named 
Peter to walk through the middle of the 
two burning piles (an arm's width apart), 

1 Southey (Progress and Prospects of Society, vol. i., 
10) thinks that these appeals to heaven may have been 
answered at times. 



334 The Old-Time Bishop 

who (having prayed this prayer: "Lord 
Jesus Christ, the true light of all that 
believe, I beseech Thy clemency, that if 
Peter of Pavia, now called bishop of Flor- 
ence, has obtained the episcopal throne by 
means of money, which is the heresy of 
simony, Thou wilt assist me in this terri- 
ble ordeal, and save me from being burned 
by the fire, as of old Thou didst preserve 
the three children in the midst of the 
burning fiery furnace") stepped boldly 
forth between the flaming pyres, and came 
out on the further side uninjured, even his 
linen alb, his silken stole, and maniple not 
scorched. Seven years later (1074) Greg- 
ory VII., recognizing the worth of his 
services, made him cardinal bishop of 
Albano. 

Among the retainers of Richard de Swin- 
field, bishop of Hereford, was one Thomas 
de Bruges, his champion, " who received 
an annual salary that he might fight in the 
prelate's name on occasion of any lawsuit 
which might be terminated by judicial duel," 
which, in the bishop's case, did not result 
in the death of the vanquished, but was 
merely a combat (cumfuste et scuto) with 



The Old- Time Bishop 335 

staff and shield. 1 In the year 1284, a trial 
by battle was waged in a writ of right for 
a disputed manor, between the champion 
of the bishop of Ossory and the champion 
of his competitor. 2 In the twenty-ninth 
year of Edward III. (1327-1377) a duel 
also took place by means of champions 
between the bishop of Salisbury and the 
earl of Salisbury ; and when the judges, in 
execution of the law, came to examine the 
dress of the combatants, they found that 
the bishop's champion had several sheets 
of prayers and incantations sown in his 
clothes. 3 

In 1508 the bishop of Galloway became 
dean of the Chapel-Eoyal at Stirling, with 
" the care of the souls of the .._. , 

T7- ^ ^ • Bishop of 

King and Queen, along with t he c ha pel- 
precedence in the Chapel ; " ° y 
and, on the king's solicitation, Alexander 
III., bishop of Home, conferred on him the 
additional title of Bishop of the Chapel- 

1 Jusserand's English Wayfaring Life in the Middle 
Ages, 117. 

2 Bishop Mant's History of the Church of Ireland, i. 22, 
Ware's Bishops, 406. 

3 Jusserand's English Wayfaring Life, etc., 118. 



336 The Old-Time Bishop 

Royal. Six prelates, in turn, held and en- 
joyed the united bishopric : George Vaus, 
the then bishop of Galloway, who, after the 
annexation, assumed the title of bishop of 
Candida Casa, and of the Chapel-Royal ; 
James Beaton, who wore armor beneath 
his episcopal robes, and was, successively, 
archbishop of Glasgow and of St. An- 
drews; David Arnot, archdeacon of Lo- 
thian, provost of Bothwell, and abbot of 
Cambuskenneth ; Henry "Wemyss ; Andrew 
Durie, abbot of Melrose; and Alexander 
Gordon, brother of George, earl of Huntly, 
who had been consecrated " archbishop of 
Athens," as some recompense for his dis- 
appointment in not being confirmed to the 
see of Glasgow. This is he who, later, 
joined Knox's party, and was appointed, by 
the Kirk, " superintendent " of Glasgow. 
As to the Chapel-Royal, located within the 
precincts of Stirling Castle, it is said to 
have represented a more ancient chapel 
dedicated to St. Michael. Its revenues were 
absorbed after the Reformation, and when 
the two kingdoms were united under James 
VI. it ceased to have any importance. A 
striking clock (the second in Scotland) was 



The Old- Time Bishop 337 

one of the articles of furniture contributed 
toward its ornamentation by its founder, 
James IV. (1505) ; and three organs (tria 
paria organorum, quorum unum de lignis, et 
duo alii de stanno sive plumbo) — the choir, 
the great organ, and the swell — backed the 
chantor, the sixteen canons, and the six boy 
choristers in the musical rendition of the 
chapel services. 1 

On the 7th day of February, 1530, Henry, 
bishop of Withern (Galloway) and of the 
Chapel-Royal at Stirling, on 
bended knees, and with joined 
hands placed between the hands of the 
most reverend father, the archbishop, made 
and offered his due obedience and manual 
reverence, as suffragan (Glasgow having 
been declared a metropolitan see, 1491, the 
bishops of Dunkeld, Dunblane, Galloway 
and Argyll became suffragans thereto), to 
the said metropolitan in this form : 

" I, Henry of Withern and the Chapel- 
Royal of Stirling, bishop, now and hence- 
forward swear and promise obedience and 
reverence for myself, as bishop of the 

1 Lawson's Scottish Episcopal Church, i. 3, 4. 



338 Tfie Old-Time Bishop 

church of Withern, and for that my church 
of Withern, and for the whole people and 
clergy of my see and diocese of Withern to 
you, Gavin, archbishop of Glasgow, my im- 
mediate metropolitan and to your succes- 
sors canonically entering ; save, however, 
remaining always uninjured, the privileges, 
exemptions, and indulgences foresaid 
granted me as bishop of the Chapel- 
Eoyal of Stirling, and to that Chapel. So 
help me God, and these holy gospels of 
God. 1 " 

According to the Roman Pontifical, the 
bishops subject to the see of Eome still 
take, at the time of their consecration, the 
ancient oath, which, ever since its formula- 
tion, has made them " sedis Romance vilis- 
sima mancipia" The following passages 
occur : " I will not be a party in any coun- 
sel, action, or treaty, which may in any way 
prejudice our lord, the pope, or the Church 
of Eome. All the injunctions, reserva- 
tions, provisions, etc., of the pope, I will 
observe with all my might, and cause 
others to observe them. I will also, to the 
utmost extent of my ability, persecute and 

1 Cosmo Innes : Sketches of Early Scotch History, 497. 



The Old-Time Bishop 339 

oppose (persequar et impugnabo) all here- 
tics, schismatics, and rebels, to our said 
lord and his successors." x 

1 This persecuting clause may be withdrawn from pe- 
culiar circumstances, and restored by a change of circum- 
stances. — Mendham's Literary Policy of the Church of 
Rome, 316. 



XXII 
MAETYES 



" And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, 
yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment ; they were 
stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain 
with the sword ; they wandered about in sheep-skins and 
goat-skins ; being destitute, afflicted, tormented ; they 
wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and 
caves of the earth." — Hebrews xi. 36-38. 



— — 



CHAPTER XXII 
MAKTYES 

43 A.D. to 62 A.D. 
UNDEE THE JEWS 

S. James I. (tlie Greater), brother of S. 
John, and son of Zebedee and Salome, be- 
headed (43) by Herod Agrippa at Jerusa- 
lem, was the first Christian bishop to die 
for his testimony to Jesus. 

S. James II. (the Less, as being smaller 
in stature, or because he was not one of the 
original apostles), surnamed " The Just," 
on account of his great piety and virtue, 
author of the Epistle that bears his name, 
and first bishop of Jerusalem, brother of 
Simeon, and Jude, and Joses ("brothers of 
the Lord "), son of Cleopas (or Alphseus) 
and Mary, called upon to deliver his opin- 
ion on the character of Christ in the pres- 



344 Martyrs 

ence of an excited crowd, was thrust down 
over the battlements of the Temple (one of 
whose towers he had mounted that he 
might be the better heard), stoned, and 
beaten to death with a fuller's club (Pass- 
over, 62) by his enemies, whom his advo- 
cacy of the divinity of Christ had disap- 
pointed and enraged. 



64 A.D. 
THE FIRST PERSECUTION — NERO 

S. Paul, the earliest " missionary bish- 
op," brother of Eufus (Bom. xvi. 13), and 
son of Simon of Cyrene, who bore the 
cross after Jesus (S. Mark xv. 21), was 
(66) beheaded at Rome. 

In the same year S. Peter, brother of 
Andrew, son of Jona, was crucified at 
Rome with his head downward. 

S. Bartholomew {Nathaniel Bar-Thol- 
emy) was (71) flayed alive in Armenia. 

S. Philip, of Bethsaida, was (80) hanged 
against a pillar at Hierapolis, a city of 
Phrygia. 

S. Jude (" not Iscariot "), surnamed 



Martyrs 345 

Thaddaeus, brother of S. James II., and 
son of Cleopas (or Alphseus) and Mary, a 
"brother of the Lord," was (80) shot to 
death by arrows in Persia or Armenia, 

S. Mark, the companion of S. Paul the 
evangelist, the reputed founder and first 
bishop of the Church of Alexandria, is 
said to have been dragged through the 
streets of that city, and then to have been 
hurled into the sea from a high rock. 

S. Andrew, brother of Simon Peter, 
was bound to a cross (X) by order of the 
proconsul of Achaia. 

S. Matthew (Levi), one of the four evan- 
gelists, was slain by a sword in Ethiopia. 

S. Matthias, a substitute for Judas Is- 
cariot, according to tradition was first 
stoned and then beheaded in Colchis. 

S. Thomas, surnamed Didymus, was 
run through the body with a spear at Coro- 
mandel. 

95 A.D. 

THE SECOND PERSECUTION — DOMITIAN 

S. John the Evangelist, " the beloved 
disciple," w T as this year banished to the 



346 Martyrs 

isle of Patmos, where he was favored with 
the visions recorded in The Apocalypse. 

Timothy, the first bishop of Ephesus, is 
said to have suffered under Domitian. 



106 A.D. 
THE THIRD PERSECUTION — TRAJAN 

S. Simeon (the Zealot), the second bish- 
op of Jerusalem, the successor of his 
brother, S. James the Less, the oldest and 
the last of the Apostles, is related by Eu- 
sebius to have been crucified (107) at the 
age of 120. 

Phocas, bishop of Pontus, because he 
would not do sacrifice to Neptune, was 
cast into a hot lime-kiln, and next into a 
scalding bath, where he entered into life. 

Publius, bishop of Athens, also suffered 
unto death during the continuance of this 
persecution. 

Ignatius, a convert and pupil of "the 
beloved disciple," third bishop of Antioch, 
was exposed to wild beasts in the amphi- 
theatre at Rome (107), and the bones that 
were left were taken to Antioch and de- 



Martyrs 347 

posited near one of the gates. This is he 
who was styled Theophorus, because he 
said he carried God within him. 

Telesphorus, a Greek by birth, the sev- 
enth bishop of Rome, the successor of 
Sixtus I., after an episcopate of eleven 
years (128-139), " ended his life by an il- 
lustrious martyrdom," as Eusebius hath it. 

About the same time, according to this 
historian (iv. 23), the soul of Publius, 
bishop of Athens, was torn from its body. 

Marcus, the first gentile bishop of Jeru- 
salem, was handed over to the public exe- 
cutioner about the year 150. He is com- 
memorated at Adrianople on the 22d of 
October. 

166 A.D. 
THE FOURTH PERSECUTION — AURELIUS 

Polycarp, consecrated bishop of Smyrna 
by his beloved " father in God," S. John 
the Divine, and supposed to be the " angel 
of the Church of Smyrna," for whom alone, 
of all the seven " angels," Jesus Christ had 
naught but words of praise, visiting Eome 
in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, was dis- 



348 Martyrs 

covered, arrested, examined, sentenced to 
be burnt, and expired (167) in the attitude 
and article of prayer. 

Pothinus, bishop of Lyons, an aged man 
of ninety, was dragged through the streets, 
stoned, plundered, thrown into prison, 
where (177), after two days' confinement, 
he resigned his spirit into the hands of 
God who gave it. 

199 A.D. 
THE FIFTH PERSECUTION — SEVERUS 

Irenaeus, a disciple of Polycarp, the suc- 
cessor of the martyred Pothinus in the 
see of Lyons, a famous writer and theolo- 
gian, summoned to choose between a cross 
and an idol, chose the cross, and (circ. 202) 
was nailed thereon. 

Thraseas, bishop at Eumenia and Saga- 
ris, bishop at Laodicea, also suffered at 
this time. 

Urban I., bishop of Rome, dragged out 
of the catacombs in which he was hiding, 
and brought before the prefect of the city, 
was accused of having been the occasion 
of the death of the 5,000 martyrs of the 



_ ^ _ 



Martyrs 349 

last reign (sic), and of having kept a vast 
amount of money that had been be- 
queathed to the Church (which had been 
distributed among the poor), and (230) 
summarily executed with the sword. 



235 a.d. 
the sixth persecution — maximinus 

Pontianus, the successor of Urban I. in 
the see of Eome, was banished to Sar- 
dinia in this year, where he died in the 
mines. 

Next after him in the bishopric of Eome 
was Anteros, who, because he caused the 
acts and deaths of the martyrs to be writ- 
ten, was put to the sword, Maximinus be- 
ing the judge. 

Babylus, patriarch of Antioch, hearing 
of the intention of the governor, Nume- 
rian, to visit the church, repulsed him 
from the door as an idolator and mur- 
derer, for which (244) he was presently 
tortured and thrown into prison, where he 
expired. 



350 Martyrs 

250 a.d. 
the seventh persecution — decius 

Fabian, the nineteenth bishop of Home, 
the successor of the martyred Anteros, was 
the first to suffer martyrdom under Decius. 

At the risk of his life Cornelius suc- 
ceeded him in the episcopate, and, not 
long after, in death too, being first ban- 
ished, and then executed. 

Lucius (252), who had the courage to 
carry on the succession, likewise gained 
the martyr's crown. 

Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem, a very 
aged man, was committed to prison and 
there died. 

Babylas, bishop of Athens, also died in 
prison. 

Nestor, bishop of Magida, in Pamphylia, 
refusing to renounce his religion, was 
nailed to a cross (251), whence he exhorted 
the spectators, and, as they knelt around 
him at his bidding, his voice leading them 
in prayers, as he uttered the final Amen, 
he gave up the ghost. 

In the same year Decius, having come to 



Martyrs 351 

the city of Babylon, discovered there a 
bishop named Polychronius, who, disdain- 
ing to purchase his life at the expense of 
his soul, was beaten on the mouth with 
stones until he died. 

257 a.d. 

THE EIGHTH PEESECUTION — VALERIAN 

Stephen I., the successor of the martyred 
Lucius in the see of Eome, was among the 
first to suffer martyrdom (257) under Va- 
lerian. 

Sixtus II., the successor of Stephen I. 
in the see of Eome, was arrested the follow- 
ing year, in accordance with an order from 
Valerian, condemning to death all bishops, 
priests, and deacons, and decapitated in 
the Mamertine prison. 

Hippolytus, bishop of Pontus, may have 
died the martyr's death, but certainly he 
was not torn to pieces at Ostia by being- 
attached to the tails of wild horses, as Dol- 
linger observes that this mode of punish- 
ment was not practised by the Eomans. 

Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, a lover of 
unity, but a victim of heresies and schisms, 



352 Martyrs 

after suffering banishment under Valerian, 
was (258) finally decapitated, outside the 
city wall, as he knelt in prayer. 

Fructuosus, bishop of Tarragona, Spain, 
was surprised in bed by the officers of the 
court, and, refusing to sacrifice to the gods 
of Rome, was (259) burnt alive in the am- 
phitheatre. 

Zenon, bishop of Verona, it is related, 
was cruelly tortured and then executed. 

Nemesianus, Felix, Lucius, another Felix, 
Litteus, Polianus, Victor, Iaderus, and Da- 
tivus, bishops in Northern Africa, were 
beaten and sent to work in the marble 
quarries. Some of them died from ex- 
posure, want, cold, and worn out with the 
unwonted labor. The banished Cyprian 
(257) wrote to them to comfort and sustain 
them in their trials. 

Felix, bishop of Eome and a Roman by 
birth, was apparently led out to martyrdom 
in the year 274. 

275 a.d. 

THE NINTH PERSECUTION — AURELIAN 

Euthychianus, bishop of Rome, of whom 
it is related, by somehagiologists, that " he, 



Martyrs 353 

with liis own hands, buried three hundred 
and forty-two martyrs," is thought to have 
suffered martyrdom himself (283), and was 
laid in the cemetery of S. Calixtus. 

Lucian, one of the companions of Dion- 
ysius, the apostle of Gaul, fell a victim 
(290) to the prejudices of the heathen to 
whom he was carrying the gospel, but he 
lives in history as the apostle of Beauvais, 
of which place he was bishop. 

Hilary, bishop of Aquileja, in Northern 
Italy, refusing to sacrifice to the gods, was 
beaten with rods, burnt with red-hot coals, 
which were strewn on his back, covered 
with salt and vinegar, cast into prison and, 
on the morrow, slain (285) with Tatian, his 
deacon, and three other Christians then 
awaiting execution. 

Ephraem, a bishop, commemorated 
March 7, was one of the martyrs (296) of 
the Ghersonesus. 

303 a.d. 

the tenth persecution — diocletian 

Sabinus, bishop of Assisi, cast into 
prison by the governor of Tuscany and 



354 Martyrs 

commanded to venerate a little statue of 
Jupiter habited in a gilded mantle, dashed 
it on the ground instead, for which his 
hands were cut off; and subsequently 
(303), having converted the prefect and his 
household, he was executed with them by 
order of the emperor. 

Felix, bishop of Tubzacene, in Africa, 
when all the churches of Syria, as Theo- 
doret relates, were destroyed on that fate- 
ful Good Friday (303), refusing to give up 
the sacred books and parchments, was sent 
to the emperor, heavily chained, thrust into 
the hold of the ship, where he was four 
days without food or water, under the legs 
of the horses ; and, on landing at Venusium, 
was slain with the sword on the 30th day 
of August of the same year. 

Ireneeus, bishop of Mitrovitz on the 
Save, in Pannonia (Hungary), esteemed 
death for Christ greater riches than mother, 
wife, and children. 

Phileas, bishop of Thumis r in Egypt, un- 
moved by threats or entreaties to do sacri- 
fice to idols, was executed (303) in Alex- 
andria, along with the tribune of the guard, 
who had spoken in his behalf. 







Martyrs 355 

Felix, the aged bishop of Spoleto, where 
the persecuting emperor's palace was situa- 
ted, was examined by Diocletian himself, 
and then tortured with fire and decapitated. 

Philip, the octogenarian bishop of He- 
raclea, in Thrace, was tortured, scourged, 
imprisoned, dragged by his feet over the 
streets of the city, beaten with rods till his 
bowels gushed out, and then burnt at the 
stake, where he gave thanks to God till his 
voice was hushed in death. 

Victorinus, a Greek, bishop of Pettau, in 
Upper Pannonia, episcopus Pitabionensis, a 
Biblical scholar of some repute, whose com- 
mentaries on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, 
Isaiah, Ezekiel, Habakkuk, Ecclesiastes, 
the Canticles, and S. Matthew once edified 
the Church, but of whom we have nothing 
now save a treatise on " The Creation of 
the World," is set down by Jerome as a 
martyr of this period. 

Narcissus, bishop of Gerona, driven from 
his see, wandered, homeless, with his dea- 
con, for the space of nine months, when, 
returning to Spain, he was assassinated 
(circ. 308) by the heathen whom he was at- 
tempting to evangelize. 



356 Martyrs 

Methodius, bishop of Olympus and Pa- 
tara in Lycia, and, later, of Tyre, an im- 
placable opponent of Origen, against whose 
theology he wrote " De Kesurrectione " — 
large fragments of which have been pre- 
served, was martyred (311) at Chalcis. 

Theodore, bishop of Cyrene, in Lybia, 
was (311) brought to trial by his own son, 
who charged him before the Roman gov- 
ernor with being a Christian, and, when or- 
dered to offer incense before an altar, struck 
the idol with his shoes, which he held in his 
hand ; whereupon his tongue was cut out, 
and, after excruciating sufferings on the 
rack, was finally released by death. 

Hesychius, a bishop of Egypt, the earliest 
Christian scholar, so far as is known, to re- 
vise the text of the Greek Bible (the Sep- 
tuagint and the New Testament), fell a 
victim to the persecuting fury of the em- 
peror. 

Quirinus, bishop of Sissek, on the Save, 
in Croatia, was cast into the Eaab with a 
millstone around his neck because he would 
not throw a little incense on the fire to the 
gods. 

Clement, bishop of Ancyra, was torn 



Martyrs 357 

with hooks, and had his teeth and jaws 
broken with stones. 

Januarius, bishop of Benevento, was de- 
capitated at Puteoli. 

Erasmus, bishtfp in Campania, had trial 
of cruel mockings, and met the fate of 
Antipas. 

Philonides, bishop at Curium, in Cyprus, 
found a martyr's death at home. 

Anthimus, bishop of Nicomedia, was be- 
headed, as Eusebius (viii. 13) relates. 

Tyrannio, bishop of Tyre, was tormented 
and thrown into the Orontes. 

Sylvanus, bishop of Emesa, Phoenicia, 
after an episcopate of forty years, was de- 
voured by wild beasts in his own city. 

Sylvanus, bishop of Gaza, was con- 
demned to the copper mines in Arabia, and 
subsequently beheaded there with thirty- 
nine other witnesses. 

Pochumius, Theodore, Peleus, and Nilus, 
Egyptian bishops all, closed their career 
by martyrdom. 

Peter, bishop of Alexandria, who fifty 
years before had been a sufferer with Diony - 
sius in the Decian persecution, was now 
(312) seized by the express order of the 



358 Martyrs 

emperor and beheaded. There is a legend 
that he was the last victim of this persecu- 
tion in Alexandria. 



SPORADIC 

Licinius — 320-323 

Blasius (S. Blaise) was bishop and mar- 
tyr at Sebaste (circ. 320), and is commem- 
orated by the Latin, Byzantine, and Ar- 
menian Churches. 

In the year 322, Basil, bishop of Amasea 
in Pontus, w r as scourged and decapitated 
because he had given shelter to a beautiful 
Christian maiden named Glaphyra, on 
whom the emperor Licinius had cast lust- 
ful eyes, and whom he was determined to 
debauch. 

Julian— 361-363 

Donatus, bishop at Arezzo, in Tuscany, 
is calendared as a victim of the pagan re- 
action of this reign. 

Timeotheus, bishop of Prusa, to whom 
two churches at Constantinople are dedi- 
cated, is also set down in various meno- 



■BB^aSSSSBB 



Martyrs 359 

logies as having suffered martyrdom under 
this paganized emperor. 

Theodoret and Sozomen both relate the 
sufferings (circ. 361) of Mark, bishop of 
Arethusa (not the Mark of Arethusa, one 
of the leaders of the Arians from the time of 
Constantine), " an aged and virtuous pre- 
late," who, having destroyed an idolatrous 
temple during the reign of Constantius 
and erected a Christian church in its place, 
was commanded, by edict, to rebuild the 
temple, or to defray the expenses of its re- 
construction. Unwilling, as well as unable, 
to do either, he delivered himself up on 
hearing that, during his flight, others had 
been arrested in his stead; and, once in 
the hands of his enemies, he was dragged 
through the streets, stripped naked, covered 
with blows, thrown into fetid sewers, 
pierced with knives and writing imple- 
ments by the school-boys of the city, thrust 
into a basket after being anointed with a 
kind of pickle and with honey, and, sus- 
pended where the heat was most excessive, 
was left to the attacks of wasps and bees ; 
but his fortitude won him release. 

But the emperor was not a persecutor. 



360 Martyrs 

" A Christian until the age of twenty, ho 
was influenced by the religion he re- 
nounced, and retained the moral precepts 
of Christianity in his memory." * Certain- 
ly, his vivisection of Basil, a priest of An- 
cyra, was not in accord with his humane 
and justice-loving spirit. 



309-349 

THE PEBSIAN PERSECUTION 

In the menology of Basil the Macedoni- 
an (867-886), Bishop Milles is commemo- 
rated as a martyr November 13. This 
is he who, originally a soldier in the Per- 
sian army, abandoned it and became a 
spiritual leader in the Church Militant. 
But when the inhabitants of his city would 
not hear him, he departed, uttering impre- 
cations against them, taking nothing with 
him but the holy Book of the Gospels. 

The same menology also assigns Febru- 
ary 20th to the commemoration of Sadoc, 
a bishop, and his one hundred and twenty- 
eight companions, all of whom suffered 

1 Schmidt's Social Results of Early Christianity, 413. 



Martyrs 361 

death (345) under the famous Sapor II., 
whose "reign lasted seventy-one years, 
and was marked by bloody wars with the 
Eoman emperors Constantius and Julian, 
the latter of whom was defeated and slain 
(363) in the contest." 

In the year 343, Narses, bishop of 
Sciarchadata, was beheaded at the age of 
four-score years, because he would not do 
homage to the sun, at the command of 
Sapor; and John, metropolitan of Beth- 
Seleucia, was stoned to death. 

Symeon, the son of a fuller, coadjutor, 
originally (316), to Papas, bishop of Ctesi- 
phon, and, later, his successor, accused to 
Sapor of being in correspondence with the 
Eomans, was ordered to adore the sun, 
and, when he would not, was (344) decapi- 
tated with a hundred other Christians — 
bishops, presbyters, and clergy of all 
grades. 

Sozomen (II. 13) declares that over six- 
teen thousand men and women, whose 
names had been ascertained, were martyred 
under Sapor ; and he gives the names of 
twenty-three bishops : Barbasymes, Paul, 
Gadiabes, Sabinus, Mareas, Mocius, John, 



362 Martyrs 

Hormisdas, Papas, James, Komas, Maares, 
Agas, Bochres, Abdas, Abdiesus, John, 
Abraham, Agdelas, Sapor, Isaac, Dausas, 
and Mareabdes, chorepiscopus, who had 
been captured with about two hundred and 
fifty of his clergy. 

350-523 

AEIAN PERSECUTIONS 

Paul, bishop of Constantinople, the 
champion of the Nicene Faith, in the en- 
forced absence of Athanasius, was first 
banished to Pontus by Constantine, at the 
instigation of the Arians; then, after his 
restoration, sent in chains to a castle on 
the Tigris ; then, after a few years' re- 
possession of his see, sent to die at Cu- 
cusus, in Armenia, where, according to 
Athanasius, the agents sent by the Arian 
party seized (circ. 350) and strangled 
him. 

Eusebius, a Sardinian, educated in 
Ptome by its bishop Eusebius, elected to 
the see of Vercelli by an unanimous vote 
of the people and the clergy, a zealous 
pleader for the Godhood of Christ, refusing 



Martyrs 363 

to yield to the Arian tendency of the 
council of Milan (355), was banished by 
Constantius, first to Scythopolis, then to 
Cappadocia, and then to the Thebaid ; 
and, though he regained his liberty on the 
death of the emperor, he was ultimately 
stoned to death (371) by his adversaries. 

Eusebius, bishop of Samosata, on the 
Euphrates, disguised as a soldier, travelled 
through Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine, 
exhorting the Church and consecrating 
priests, in the reign of Valens, by whom 
he was banished (373) to Thrace ; on 
whose death (378) he returned ; and, 
"while engaged in the reorganization of 
the Syrian Church, he was killed (379) at 
Dolica by a stone thrown at him by an 
Arian woman." 1 

Quodvultdeus, bishop of Carthage, in 
the vth century, at the time of the con- 
quest of North Africa by the Arian Gen- 
seric, was torn from his see by the Yandal 
conqueror, placed on board of a ship, 
naked, in company with many of his 

1 The details of the Arian persecutions under Valens 
(364-379) are to be found in the ecclesiastical histories of 
Theodoret, Socrates, and Sozomen. 



364 Martyrs 

clergy, and, despoiled of all personal prop- 
erty, left to make their way, as best they 
could, to Naples. There Quodvultdeu»s 
died. 

A little later, in the general persecution 
of the Catholics under Huneric, the son of 
Genseric, the Vandal king in North Africa, 
Felix, bishop of Abbirita, paralzyed and 
incapable of speech or walking, and Cyp- 
rian, bishop of Uniziba, accompanied by 
nearly five thousand other Catholic clergy 
and laymen, were banished to the Libyan 
desert, where, lacking food and shelter, 
and wasted by wild beasts, " they lingered 
out a miserable existence, till death ended 
their sorrows, and translated them to a 
glorious immortality." 

Two years later (484) Huneric issued an 
edict closing all the churches in Africa, 
and transferring all ecclesiastical property 
to the Arian prelates and clergy. The 
bishops, who had been summoned from all 
parts of Africa to attend the conference at 
Carthage, were driven out of the city, their 
horses taken from them, banished, part of 
them to labor in the fields, and others to 
Corsica, to hew wood and build ships. Of 



Martyrs 365 

the 466 who attended the conference, 
eighty-eight died, forty-six were shipped 
to Corsica, three hundred and two to other 
places, twenty-six fled and escaped, and 
eighty-eight turned Arians. One of them, 
Lsetus, a prelate especially obnoxious to 
Huneric, by reason of his zeal and elo- 
quence, was burnt alive. 

Marcellus, bishop of Die, in France, at 
the end of the vith century, was thrown in- 
to prison by the Arians, where he died 
from cold and want. 

THE BAPTIST EEDIYIYUS 

Herculanus, bishop of Perugia, when 
that town was besieged by Totila, king of 
the Goths, in 549, inciting the inhabitants 
to contend for their homes and city, was 
condemned by the conqueror to suffer the 
loss of a strip of skin the length of his en- 
tire body, and then to be decapitated ; but 
the commander of the expedition humanely 
beheaded him first, and then cut the thong 
of skin, as demanded by the prototype of 
Shylock. 

Prcetextatus, bishop of Rouen, was 



366 Martyrs 

stabbed in church on Easter morning 
(586), by an assassin hired by the ferocious 
Fredgund, whom he had offended, and 
whose murderous plans he had thwarted, 
and, being carried to his bed, he died, 
having received the Eucharist at the altar, 
to which he had staggered, his hands dab- 
bled with blood. 

Desiderius, bishop of Yienne, having 
taken the infamous Brunehaut to task for 
marrying her brother-in-law, became the 
victim of a royal persecution, which re- 
sulted in his assassination by three hired 
highwaymen (608), who pelted him with 
stones and then killed him outright. 

Kilian, the apostle of Franconia, an Irish 
missionary, pointing out to the Duke of 
"Wurzburg the impropriety of the marriage 
he had contracted with Geilana, his broth- 
er's wife, became the object of the furious 
hate of the barbaric duchess; and so it 
came to pass that one night, in the year 
689, in the absence of Gozbert, the prelate 
was felled to the earth, decapitated, hur- 
riedly put under the ground, and his 
clothes, vestments, sacred books, and 
crosses interred there with him. 



Martyrs 367 

Lambert, bishop of Maestricht, of noble 
family and apostolic labors, gave his life 
(709) a ransom for his nephews, who had 
killed two men of a neighboring clan, and 
whose murder was avenged by a red-handed 
attack upon the innocent prelate. The 
site of the martyrdom at Liege was pres- 
ently covered over with a church, and 
there Grimoald, son of Pepin, was killed 
(714) while praying for his sick father. 
Thither, in 727, the relics of Lambert were 
translated from Maestricht, and the see 
also, and the saint became patron of the 
city that grew up around his cathedral. 

Eumold, an Irish missionary bishop, 
attempting the conversion of Brabant, fell 
a victim (775) to the hatred of a party 
whom he had rebuked for violation of the 
seventh commandment. 

At the opening of the next century, a 
monk of Amabaric, Scotland, Tanco by 
name, going into Hanover in quest of his 
former abbot, who had been made bishop 
of Verden, was presently elevated to that 
self-same see, his friend, Patto, dying ; 
and, castigating the savage and licentious 



368 Martyrs 

manners of the day, was quickly despatched 
by a barbarous and maddened mob. 

Alphege, bishop of Winchester (984), 
primate of all England (1006), was taken 
by the Danes, after their capture of Can- 
terbury, on board their ships (1011), and, 
because he would not allow the king and 
his people to be taxed to raise the three 
thousand pounds set for his ransom, they 
led him to the hustings on the eve of Sun- 
day, the octave of Easter, as the Saxon 
Chronicle relates, and "pelted him with 
bones and horns of oxen, and one of them 
struck him with an axe-iron on the head, 
so that he sank down, and his holy blood 
fell on the earth, and his holy soul he sent 
forth to God's kingdom." 

Toward the close of the same century, 
Stanislaus, the inheritor of great wealth, 
which he renounced for the service of the 
Church, canon in the cathedral of Cracow, 
Poland, and elected in 1072 to the bishop- 
ric of the city, again and again confronted 
the cruel and profligate king, Boleslaus 
II., threatening him with excommunication 
if he did not cease his atrocities. On one 
of these occasions (1079), the latest Herod, 



Martyrs 369 

in a paroxysm of rage, sent servants after 
him to murder him ; and, when they were 
afraid to harm him, overawed by his sanc- 
tity, he himself rushed after him, and, 
finding him in the chapel of St. Michael, 
outside the city wall, fell upon him with 
the sword, cut open his head, multilated 
his face, and gave him over into the hands 
of his attendants, who hacked the body and 
cast it into a field. 

In the xiith century Henry, the founder 
and ruler of the Finnish Church, the arch- 
bishop of Upsala, a zealous but intolerant 
missionary, was assassinated on account of 
the heavy penance he had imposed upon a 
person of great authority, who had been 
guilty of manslaughter ; but he was canon- 
ized by Adrian IV., and he lives in history 
as the apostle of the Finns. 

Engelbert, archbishop of Cologne, pre- 
eminent in his age for wisdom, purity, and 
earnestness of purpose, regent of Germany 
during the absence of the emperor (1220) 
on his crusade, and fearless in his suppres- 
sion of rapine and violence, became sud- 
denly aware that he had gained the im- 
placable hatred of the lawless nobles of the 
24 



370 Martyrs 

country, who, organizing a conspiracy 
against him, presently waylaid him (No- 
vember 7, 1225), cut his head open, ran 
him through with a sword, hacked him 
with their axes, and left him dead with 
forty-seven wounds. 

John Fisher, bishop of Eochester, a 
friend of Eeuchlin and Erasmus, the only 
English prelate bold enough to hold that 
Henry's marriage with Catharine of Ara- 
gon was valid, fell under the royal dis- 
pleasure, and, at last, on the charge of de- 
nying the king's supremacy, was (1535) 
beheaded. 

MARTYRED MISSIONARIES 

In the year 755 Boniface, the living 
Bible, the quickening preacher, the Saxon 
missionary, the regionary bishop, the bap- 
tist of 100,000 pagans, the apostle of Ger- 
many, the founder of the German Church, 
and its metropolitan, seeking, at the age 
of seventy-five, to evangelize the heathen 
not yet reached in Frisia, was murdered, 
with fifty-two companions, by a mob of 
idolators ; under his head, as he lay await- 
ing the fatal blow, a volume of the Gos- 



Martyrs 371 

pels, and rolled up in the shroud he had 
brought with him, in anticipation of a 
martyr's end, a copy of St. Ambrose on 
" The Advantage of Death." 

Eulogius of Cordova, elected archbishop 
of Cordova in 858, a zealous champion of 
Christianity in its contest with Islamism, 
was beheaded the following year, because 
he had been instrumental in the conver- 
sion of a Moorish girl. 

Leo, archbishop of Eouen, solicitous 
for the conversion of infidels, resigned his 
diocese, and made his way into Bayonne, 
where (900) he was one day killed by some 
pirates, who had been banished from the 
town by the better class of citizens. 

Adalbert, archbishop of Prague, finding 
it impossible to serve the Church and the 
emperor, at last, after a third visit to 
Rome, obtained permission from pope and 
king to devote the remainder of his life 
to the conversion of Slavonia ; and, going 
to Poland, founded the Church there ; 
whence, crossing the Baltic, he made his 
way into heathen Prussia, but only to find 
death near ; for, treading accidentally one 
day on one of their holy shields, he was 



372 Martyrs 

seized and bound, and (April 23, 997) cut 
in pieces, while in the act of prayer for 
his murderers. 

Bruno, a regionary bishop, following in 
the track of the martyred apostle of Prus- 
sia, organized a band of Christian heroes 
to carry the Gospel among the Sclavonic 
races of Prussia, but they would none of 
him, and fell on his little band, and (1008), 
hacking off the leader's hands and feet, put 
him and his eighteen associates to death. 

Anskar, who died 865, lives in history 
as the apostle of Sweden. But long be- 
fore the xith century the Swedes had re- 
lapsed into their former heathenism. On 
the accession of Olaf Scobkongr, the 
English Church, at the request of the 
new king, sent missionaries to Gothland, 
among whom was Sigfried, archdeacon of 
York, who had offered himself for the 
work, and had been consecrated bishop. 
To him the king gave ear, and, after bap- 
tism, made over to him, for a church, the 
royal castle at Husaby, which, consisting 
of huge halls, with sleeping apartments on 
each side, and doors at both ends, was soon 
made to assume the appearance of a cathe- 



Martyrs 373 

dral ; and there Sigfried resided, till lie 
had effected the conversion of West Goth- 
land, dying (1045), apparently, in the ful- 
ness of time. But not so his chaplain, 
Eskill, who had come with him from Eng- 
land, and whom he had consecrated bishop. 
This man, remonstrating with the heathen 
king, Sweyn, who had driven out the Chris- 
tian dynasty, and had come with his peo- 
ple to Stregnas, near to the Malar Lake, to 
offer the usual sacrifices to Thor, Odin, 
and Freyr, was struck with a stone by one 
of the royal followers, and laid prostrate ; 
in which position he received a blow from 
an axe, which sheared off his crown, and 
then dragged to a convenient spot, where 
he was pelted to death with stones. 

In the opening year of the xinth cen- 
tury, Peter Paschal, bishop of Granada 
(1262), bishop of Jaen (1269), having exas- 
perated the Moors by his success among 
their captives, was imprisoned, and, when 
he issued from the prison a work unfriend- 
ly to Islamism, he was condemned to die, 
the sentence being carried into effect Jan- 
uary 6, 1300. 



374 Martyrs 

1553-1558 

THE MARIAN PERSECUTION 

John Hooper, of Merton College, Ox- 
ford, a Cistercian, a famous preacher, con- 
secrated to Gloucester (1551) with the un- 
derstanding that he would be required to 
wear the obnoxious clerical vestments on 
public occasions only, was thrown into 
prison, August 29, 1553, where he con- 
tracted sciatica ; condemned in January, 
1559, for his advocacy of clerical marriages, 
for his defence of divorce, and his denial of 
transubstantiation ; and burnt at the stake 
in Gloucester, February 9, 1555, where he 
endured great agony, as the green fagots 
would not burn quickly, and had to be 
rekindled three times. 

Hugh Latimer, son of a devout yeoman, 
fellow of Clare Hall (1509), "as obstinate 
a papist as any in England" at the time of 
his graduation, royal chaplain, incumbent 
of "West Kington, Wiltshire, bishop of 
Worcester (1535-1539), in the Tower 1546, 
where he was " kept without fire in the 
frosty winter, " according to his own state- 



Martyrs 375 

ment, released on the accession of Edward 
VI., though he would not accept another 
bishopric; was again committed to the 
Tower (September, 1553), with Archbishop 
Cranmer and Bishop Bidley ; convicted of 
heresy, excommunicated, and sentenced to 
death, for denying the doctrine of transub- 
stantiation, and the sacrifice of Christ in 
the Mass ; and, on October 16, 1555, was 
led to the stake, in front of Balliol College. 

Nicholas Bidley, fellow of Pembroke 
(1522), student at the Sorbonne, Paris 
(1527-29), king's chaplain and master of 
Pembroke Hall (1540), prebendary of Can- 
terbury (1541), prebendary of Westminster 
(1545), bishop of Bochester (1547), bishop 
of London (1550), was committed to the 
Tower, July 26, 1553, thence removed with 
Latimer to the jail of Bocardo, Oxford, 
where he was burned with this good 
friend before Balliol Hall, sentenced on the 
same charges. 

Thomas Cranmer, fellow of Jesus Col- 
lege, Cambridge (1511), consecrated to 
Canterbury, 1533, Henry's stout ally in 
getting rid of four of his wives, regent for 
Edward VI., champion of the claims of 



376 Martyrs 

Lady Jane Grey; tried on the counts 
of treason and heresy, and condemned on 
the second, six times humiliated himself, 
when promised life and liberty if he would 
recant ; publicly repented of his recanta- 
tions, when he stood a prisoner, condemned, 
in St. Mary's Church, Oxford; and was 
burned the same day (March 21, 1556), his 
right hand, which had offended, being held 
in the flames to be burned first. 

Eobert Ferrars, student at Cambridge 
and Oxford, bishop of St. David's from 
1548, " a rash and indiscreet man," accord- 
ing to Burnet, " a man of large humanity, 
justice, and uprightness," in Froude's eyes, 
was deprived of his see on the accession of 
Mary, condemned for heresy, and burned 
at Carmarthen (March 30, 1555), when he 
was also felled to the ground by a blow on 
the head. 

John Hamilton, the last archbishop of St. 
Andrews of the ancient line, who had been 
captured by the regent on the 2d of April, 
1671, in the castle of Dunbarton, was 
hanged at Stirling four days later, a martyr 
to religious and political animosity. 



Martyrs 377 

On the third of May, 1679, James Sharp, 
archbishop of St. Andrews of the Anglican 
succession, a man " temperate and upright 
in private life, liberal in his charities, and 
exemplary in the performance of his ordi- 
nary duties," a convert from Presbyterian- 
ism to Episcopacy, was barbarously mur- 
dered by a party of fanatics, some of whom 
had a personal quarrel with him, being 
hacked and perforated by their swords, 
which, they said, they drew on him " be- 
cause he was an enemy of the Gospel, a 
murderer of the saints, and a betrayer of 
the Church." 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 

THE BISHOPS' BLUE BOOK. 

i2mo, cloth, 200 pages. Price, 
$1.00. 
{Table of Contente: 

1. Nolo Episcopari. 

2. Volo Episcopari. 

3. Bishops Designate. 

4. Age of Consecration. 

5. Number of Consecrators. 

6. Laymen Raised to Episcopate. 

7. Deacons Raised to Episcopate. 

8. Chorepiscopi. 

9. Coadjutor Bishops. 

10. Regionary Bishops. I Bishops without a 

11. Titular Bishops. ( Diocese. 

12. Suffragan Bishops. 

13. Monastery Bishops. 

14. Episcopal Antecedents. 

15. Martial Prelates. 

16. Politicians and Statesmen. 

17. *AWoTpio€iri(rKoiroi. 

18. Epoch-makers. 

19. Missionary Bishops. 

20. EPISCOP.E. 



The Churchman says of it (under date April 14, 

1894) : 
" Mr. Reed has brought together a mass of curious learning 
which is certainly entertaining and suggestive. It can hardly 
l)e said to establish any new theories in regard to the Episco- 
pate, but it shows at once the elasticity of the Church, and its 
strong conviction of the necessity and permanence of that 
order. . . . Many of the facts here given will probably be 
new to most of the readers of this volume — they certainly are 



to us ; and there is an implication that what is here given is 
only a selection of the most striking points from a very large 
field of like information. We trust that Mr. Reed may be en- 
couraged by the success of this work to follow it up with an- 
other of the same sort." 

The Church Eclectic (a periodical published in the 
interests of the Anglo-Catholic School) says of 
it in its May number : 

"This is a very useful and interesting register of Episcopal 
history and incidents, not for one country or age, but for the 
whole period of the Church since the days of the Apostles. 
. . . Although a summary, each paragraph is interesting, 
especially those of the early English and Keltic history, as well 
as those of oriental, primitive, and mediaeval, and must repre- 
sent the annotations of a large amount of general historical 
reading. . . . It is really a very creditable and useful man- 
ual of little known historical facts for lecturers and speakers 
on ecclesiastical history." 

The Independent (New York Congregational) says : 
" No one, so far as we know, has done what Mr. Reed has 
attempted in this little book, to collect a sort of classified roll 
of the exceptional bishops of the Church, who in one way or 
another have made themselves famous. Counting the good 
wives, who come in for a class by themselves, he put them into 
twenty distinct groups. There are chapters on martial bishops, 
bishops who were devoted to politics, and bishops who intruded 
into sees that did not belong to them. The epoch-making 
bishops, the missionary bishops, and bishops of all kinds and 
degrees, titular, suffragan, regionary, monastery, and coad- 
jutor, have chapters to commemorate those among them who 
have risen to favor. The book is a curious one, and makes a 
rather puzzling impression." 

The Bishop of New York says of it, in a letter to 

the author : 

" All students are your debtors for the very interesting vol- 
ume you have given in the 'Blue Book.' There are certain 
books that have a distinct value as ' pointers.' They open 
lines of interesting research, and indicate the literature that 
throws light upon them. This you have done, I think, in a 
very fresh and helpful way, and so have rendered a service of 
lasting value." 



^_ 



The Bishop of Central New York, writing of it to 
the author, speaks of it as a — 
" Book full of rare and extraordinary information, abounding 
with the fruits of patient research, arranged with singular 
skill, and a charming example of the bookmaker's art. Many- 
writers of less learning will be indebted to it. I marvel how 
you could have found time, in the laborious life of a parish 
priest, to read and remember and record so much." 

The venerable Bishop of Central Pennsylvania 
writes : 
" The book supplies a compend of material which I should 
not know where else to find. It is almost indispensable to an 
ecclesiastic." 

The Bishop of Rhode Island observes that — 

" It must have required a great amount of research to col- 
lect the material for such an original work, and it brings to 
light many facts of which most of us are ignorant." 

The Bishop of Pennsylvania says : 

"The plan of the book is ingenious, and it gives an immense 
amount of interesting history within a very short compass." 

The Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol (Dr. 

Ellicott), one of the foremost scholars of the 

day, says of this " Blue Book " : 
" It is really a wonderful collection of facts. I only wish all 
our ' Blue Books ' were as pleasant and attractive." 

President Potter (Hobart College) writes : 

" Permit me to express the very great interest, as well as in- 
struction, with which I have read the preface and contents of 
1 The Bishops' Blue Book.' It came at a time when I was much 
over-worked, but, having begun to read it, I could not put it 
down, and found it both entertaining and refreshing." 

The Very Rev. E. A. Hoffman, D.D., Dean of the 
General Theological Seminary, New York City, 
takes occasion to write to the author as follows : 
" You certainly have collected a very large amount of inter- 
esting information in regard to the bishops, and I only wonder 
how you had time, with your various duties, to make such a 
collection. It will be a very valuable book of reference." 



The Rev. Dr. Hopson, Professor in St. Stephen's 

College, New York, affirms : 

" I have read the book with much interest, and shall treasure 
it as a valuable book of reference. It is a ' multum in parvo? 
and testifies to your extensive reading and patient research. I 
know of no work that contains, in small compass, so much and 
such varied information in regard to the Episcopate." 

Professor Chas. W. Shields, D.D., of Princeton 

College, N. J., describes it as — 

11 Beautiful in appearance, and full of curious learning, some 
of which is very interesting in its bearing upon the ' Historic 
Episcopate ' of our time. I prize it as a manual to which I may 
often have occasion to refer." 

Dr. Wm. Pepper, Provost of the University of 
Pennsylvania, terms it the — 
"Valuable book on The Bishops," and adds: "It was a 
happy thought, and has put in attractive form a great deal of 
desirable, but, to most of us, inaccessible information." 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 

THE BISHOPS OF THE COUNCILS. 

[In preparation. 

THE INFALLIBLE CHURCH IN ITS 
HISTORICAL SETTING. 

[In preparation. 

LITURGICAL VARIATIONS : The Divine 
Offices Compared. [In preparation. 



JAMES POTT & CO., Publishers, 

114 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK. 



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